Yano Family Residence Rice Storehouse

About the Yano Family Residence Rice Storehouse

The Yano Family Residence Rice Storehouse (箟家住宅米蔵, Yano-ke Jūtaku Komegura) is a single-storey dozo storehouse of the late Meiji era (1898 to 1912) in Gogazuka 3-chome, Itami City, Hyogo Prefecture, and was entered on the register as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on March 6, 2024. It holds the southeast corner of the estate and has a building area of 47 square meters, the largest of the three buildings on the estate whose names end in kura, storehouse.

Its gabled roof has the entrance side along the eaves, and the hongawara tiles sit on an okiyane, a roof built as a separate structure and set on top of the earthen body of the storehouse. The walls are plastered and clad below in cedar boards and battens. A door on the west is fitted with a tsuchido, and two windows open in the east wall.

Inside is a single earthen-floored room with no ceiling, so the wagoya roof frame of beams and short posts is left exposed.

Why It Was Registered

The Yano Family Residence Rice Storehouse was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape of the nation. The Agency for Cultural Affairs singles out its solid, weighty exterior, which it credits with shaping the southeast corner of the estate.

Compare it with the grain storehouse on the north side. That one covers 15 square meters; the rice storehouse covers 47, more than three times as much. The family kept grain and rice in separate buildings and gave rice by far the larger share. Rice had been the core of a farming household's wealth since the days when taxes were paid in it, so the allocation is no surprise.

The location matters too. The southeast corner is where the formal south front with its gatehouse meets the long barn on the east. Putting the heaviest storehouse there anchors that corner of the property.

What to Look For

A roof that sits on top

The defining feature of the Yano Rice Storehouse is its okiyane. The thick earthen box of the storehouse is finished on its own, and the tiled roof is then set over it as a separate frame, leaving a gap between the two. That gap ventilates the top of the building and evens out heat and humidity inside, and if fire destroys the roof, the earthen box still stands. It is a design for keeping rice safe over long periods.

Cladding to lintel height and an earthen door

The cedar cladding on the lower walls rises to uchinori height, the level of the top of the doorway. The line between boards and plaster therefore runs straight past the door, and the building looks low and firmly planted. The west door is a tsuchido, a fire door faced with earth and plaster. Closed, it gives the same protection as the wall around it.

Earth floor and open roof frame

There is no raised floor inside, only beaten earth, and looking up you see the beams and struts of the roof frame. Heavy loads such as straw rice bales were presumably easier to move on earth than on boards. Leaving the frame exposed may also have let air from the ventilated roof space reach the room.

Visiting

The Yano Family Residence Rice Storehouse stands on private land and its interior is closed (checked September 26, 2026). The earth floor and roof frame cannot be seen.

From outside, look at the south face. The Agency's photograph shows this side, with the long eave line, the hongawara roof and the straight boundary between cedar and plaster at lintel height.

The west door and its tsuchido face into the estate and cannot be seen from outside. No sign prohibits photography.