Oto Family Residence Storehouse

What the Storehouse Is

The Oto Family Residence Storehouse (大藤家住宅土蔵, Ōtō-ke Jūtaku Dozō) in Shiraichi, Takaya-cho, Higashihiroshima City, Hiroshima Prefecture, is a 2-storey earthen-walled storehouse of the late Edo period (1830 to 1868), listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on March 13, 2025. Built in the Dozo-zukuri fire-resistant manner with a tiled roof, it has a building area of 20 square meters.

It stands at the western edge of the property, fronting a lane on its south side, and was used to keep the household's belongings. It is the oldest of the four registered Ōtō buildings, older by at least 60 years than the main house, annex and kettle house of the early Showa period.

Holding the West Side of the Property

The Ōtō storehouse is register no. 34-0320, registered for its contribution to the historic landscape. The Agency for Cultural Affairs singles out its heavy, nearly windowless exterior as what gives the western side of the property its historic character.

At the Oto Family Residence, the early Showa main house presents the family's face to the main street on the east, while this Edo-period storehouse sets the scene on the lane to the west. Two buildings of different eras, each facing its own street.

Plaster to the Eaves, a Double-Beamed Roof Frame

The roof is a pantiled (Sangawara-buki) gable (Kirizuma-zukuri), with the entrance on the gable end (Tsumairi). The outer walls are finished in Shikkui lime plaster carried right up over the eaves. The doorway opens on the east side and is closed by a heavy plastered door, a Tsuchido. With so few windows, the white wall surfaces read as large, unbroken planes.

Inside, both floors are boarded and the inner walls are left at the intermediate plaster coat. Under the roof on the upper floor, a Japanese-style roof frame (Wagoya) with doubled beams is left exposed; the Agency's database includes a photograph of it.

According to Higashihiroshima City, the posts and beams are slender throughout, and the builders used square-cut nails.

Seeing the Storehouse

Because the Oto Family Residence Storehouse fronts the lane on its south side, its exterior can be seen from there. Standing in the lane, you get a clear sense of the plastered walls sealed to the eaves and the building's closed, weighty bulk.

The interior is not normally open. Whether the upper-floor roof frame can be seen depends on what the organizers allow when the property opens for a local event.