Ashida Family Residence Storehouse

An Edo-Period Storehouse Moved Within the Yard

The Ashida Family Residence Storehouse (芦田家住宅土蔵) is the storehouse of a farming family of the late Edo period in Kema, Amagasaki City, Hyogo Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) on November 2, 2009 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency records a two-storey earthen-walled storehouse with a tiled roof and a building area of 23 square metres, moved in the late Showa period; registration number 28-0435.

A Two-Storey Store Sealed in White Plaster

The Ashida Family Residence Storehouse stands in the southeast of the estate, a two-storey earthen-walled store measuring 5.9 metres by 3.9 metres (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Its ridge runs east to west under a gabled roof of hongawara tiles, the heavier pattern of alternating flat and round tiles.

On a base of stacked granite, tall vertical boarding covers the lower walls; above it, white lime plaster seals everything up into the eaves, with the shapes of the roof purlins modelled in the plaster (Agency for Cultural Affairs). A doorway with a small canopy sits in the middle of the north side, and a single window opens on the west side of the upper floor.

Amagasaki City dates the storehouse to around 1770 and records that it was moved on rollers, without being dismantled, around 1965. The Agency likewise lists it as late Edo, moved in the late Showa period.

Why It Was Registered

The Agency describes the Ashida Family Residence Storehouse as a standard example of a Japanese storehouse and registered it as a model of design.

Granite footings, a boarded lower wall and plaster sealed up into the eaves make up the classic fire-resistant store in which a family kept its valuables. That an Edo-period building was rolled to a new spot around 1965 and kept in use rather than demolished is part of its story too.

What to Look For

Look for the line where the vertical boarding gives way to white plaster, and for the purlin shapes standing out in the plastered eaves (Agency for Cultural Affairs). The hongawara roof is noticeably heavier than the pantiles on the main house and barn.

The barn adjoins the Ashida Family Residence Storehouse on its west side, so the two stand together along the south of the estate (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

Visiting

According to Amagasaki City, the Ashida Family Residence is a private home and is not open to the public. The storehouse cannot be entered and the grounds are private. The estate's location and distances from nearby stations are on the Ashida Family Residence page.