A Meiji Rice Store That Now Pours Coffee
Near the southern edge of the Numajiri family's compound in Kaneda, Tsukuba, a compact two-story building turns its narrow end toward you. This is the rice storehouse, built in the early Meiji era, sometime between 1868 and 1911 by the Agency for Cultural Affairs reckoning, to hold the harvest of a household that had served as village officers since the Edo period. It stands south of the main house, its ridge running north to south, a deliberate placement that kept the granary close to the working yard yet clear of the living quarters.
The footprint is modest, three and a half ken across and two and a half deep, the ken being the traditional module of about 1.82 meters. That gives a building area of roughly 33 square meters. What the storehouse lacks in floor space it makes up for in height, rising a full two stories under a gabled roof of sangawara, the flat pantiles that became common on rural buildings in the Meiji period.
Read the Walls
The building is entered from the gable end, an arrangement Japanese carpenters call tsumairi, where the doorway sits under the triangular face rather than along the long side. On the north face a geya-bisashi, a lean-to eave, projects over the entrance to keep rain off the threshold and the person fumbling with the door.
The walls repay a close look. Rather than plastering over the timber frame, the builders left the posts exposed in the technique known as shinkabe, so the structural grid reads clearly from outside. Above a high wainscot the surface is finished in shitami-ita, horizontal weatherboarding lapped like clapboard to shed rain. The same treatment appears on the smaller storehouse a short distance to the northwest, tying the two Meiji outbuildings together visually.
From Granary to Café
A rice store has an obvious problem once a farm household stops storing rice at this scale: what to do with a sound, handsome, but single-purpose building. The Numajiri answer was adaptive reuse. The interior was remodeled and the storehouse put to work as a café, a second life that keeps the structure maintained and occupied without erasing its outward form. The pantiled roof, the gable entrance, and the boarded walls remain legible from the yard even as the inside serves a wholly different purpose.
This kind of reuse is exactly what the registration system is designed to encourage. Registered Tangible Cultural Property status, which the rice store received on 12 July 2005 under the number 08-0176, protects the exterior character while allowing owners the flexibility to find viable modern uses. The listing ground is the building's contribution to the historic landscape, and a working café behind an unaltered Meiji facade serves that aim better than an empty shell would.
Where It Sits in the Group
The rice store is one of four separately registered buildings on the property. The others are the late-Edo main house, a slightly later storehouse used for farm tools and documents, and a Taisho-era row building. The four span roughly a century and a half and let a visitor trace how the household grew across the transition from Edo to modern Japan.
Because the compound is private and partly given over to small businesses, the café is the part most likely to admit visitors, though as an independent operation its opening days and hours are set by its proprietor and can change. Anyone planning to stop should confirm the current situation before traveling rather than assume the doors will be open. The site is not a museum, and the other buildings are not on a public visiting schedule.
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Q&A
- When was the rice storehouse built?
- In the early Meiji era. The Agency for Cultural Affairs records the range as 1868 to 1911 rather than a single year, since the exact date is not documented.
- Can I actually visit it?
- The interior has been remodeled as a café, so this building is the most accessible of the four. It runs as a private business, though, so check its current opening days and hours before making the trip.
- What does shinkabe mean?
- Shinkabe is a wall finish that leaves the timber posts exposed rather than covering them with plaster, so the frame stays visible. Here it is combined with high horizontal boarding above the wainscot.
- How is it different from the other storehouse on site?
- The rice store is slightly larger, about 33 square meters against roughly 23, and stands to the southeast. The smaller storehouse held farm tools below and documents above, and was built a little later in the Meiji era.
Basic Information
| Name | Numajiri Family Residence Rice Storehouse (Numajiri-ke Jutaku Komegura) |
|---|---|
| Location | 38-1 Kaneda, Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (building) |
| Registration No. | 08-0176 (46th round) |
| Date registered | 12 July 2005 (gazetted 2 August 2005) |
| Period | Early Meiji era (1868-1911) |
| Count | 1 building |
| Structure | Timber, two stories, pantiled roof; building area approx. 33 m²; gabled, gable-entry, shinkabe walls with high weatherboarding |
| Current use | Interior remodeled and used as a café (private business; confirm hours locally) |
References
- National Database of Cultural Properties (Agency for Cultural Affairs) — Numajiri Family Residence Rice Storehouse
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00004758
- Tsukuba City — Protection of Cultural Properties
- https://www.city.tsukuba.lg.jp/soshikikarasagasu/kyoikukyokubunkazaika/gyomuannai/2/1/1001638.html
- Ibaraki Prefectural Board of Education — List of Cultural Properties in Ibaraki
- https://kyoiku.pref.ibaraki.jp/art-and-culture/ibaraki-bunkazai/list/
Last verified: 2026.07.02