A storehouse dated by ink to Meiji 4
Ozawa Family Residence Rice Storehouse (小澤家住宅米蔵, Ozawa-ke Jūtaku Komegura) is a plastered granary of Meiji 4 (1871) at Ōya in Miho Village, Ibaraki Prefecture, placed on the national register as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2009. It measures 6.8 meters along the ridge and 3.9 meters across, a footprint of 35 square meters, and stands east of the main house on the same walled plot.
Most farm storehouses of this age carry no date at all. This one does. An ink inscription found on the timbers records construction in Meiji 4, which makes the Ozawa Family Residence Rice Storehouse the earliest of the three registered buildings on the property and fixes it a generation before the house it served.
The Ozawa family had been headmen of the old village of Ōya since the Edo period. A granary of this quality is what that position looked like in practical terms: rice arrived here as tax, as rent and as the household's own crop, and the building had to keep all of it dry and safe from fire.
Registered for the landscape it helps hold together
Registration number 08-0231 was issued on January 8, 2009, under the criterion for buildings that contribute to the historic landscape of the country. That wording matters. The Ozawa Family Residence Rice Storehouse was not assessed as an isolated specimen but as one element of a headman's compound that still reads as a whole, with the thatched house behind it and the gate to the south.
A Registered Tangible Cultural Property is registered rather than designated, an instrument that leaves the building in the owner's hands and in ordinary use. Storehouses have survived in Japan partly because of that flexibility. They are useful long after they stop holding rice.
Reading the doors, the plaster and the gable
The structure is Dozo-zukuri, the thick-walled mud-and-plaster construction developed to resist fire, raised to 2 storeys and roofed in sheet metal with a Kirizuma-zukuri gable. The entrance is on the gable end rather than the long side, which makes it Tsumairi. Its double-leaf doors are finished in kakego-nuri, the stepped rebate in which door and frame interlock so that smoke cannot find a straight path in, and a small pent roof of Sangawara-buki tile shelters them from rain.
Walls are white Shikkui plaster above a boarded skirt, a practical arrangement because the lower zone takes the splashing and can be renewed without touching the plaster. High on the east wall a single window sits under its own hood.
Inside, the two levels are treated quite differently. The ground floor is a Doma of packed earth with plank walls; the upper floor is Shinkabe, its posts left exposed, carried on rising beams that follow the pitch of the roof. On the gable facing front, the family's yagō, its house mark, is set into the plaster. That mark is worth finding from the road: it is the one piece of decoration on an otherwise severe building.
Access, and why there is no admission
There is no public opening. The Ozawa Family Residence Rice Storehouse stands inside a private garden whose owner is in residence, and Miho Village states that the property cannot normally be viewed. No tickets are sold, no opening hours exist, and the plot may not be entered.
What can be seen is limited to what is visible from the public road, where the storehouse gable shows above the boundary. Because the site is closed, no photography policy has been issued; the courtesy owed to any occupied house applies here. Access for study is sometimes possible around conservation work, and the body to ask is the Miho Village Cultural Properties Center at 029-886-0291.
Ōya is served by bus rather than rail. From Tsuchiura Station on the JR Jōban Line, take the Kasumigaura line operated by JR Bus Kantō in the direction of Edosaki and ride about 35 minutes to the Ōya stop. No visitor parking exists at the address.
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Q&A
- How old is the Ozawa Family Residence Rice Storehouse?
- It was built in Meiji 4 (1871), a date established by an ink inscription found on the building. It is the oldest of the three registered structures on the plot.
- Can visitors see inside the Ozawa Family Residence Rice Storehouse?
- No. The building is on private residential land that is closed to the public, and Miho Village advises that it cannot normally be viewed.
- What is the Ozawa Family Residence Rice Storehouse built of?
- It is dozo-zukuri, a thick earthen-walled structure finished in white plaster over a boarded skirt, with 2 storeys, a gabled sheet-metal roof and a footprint of 35 square meters.
- Why was the Ozawa Family Residence Rice Storehouse registered in 2009?
- It was registered under the criterion for buildings that contribute to the historic landscape, as part of a village headman's compound that survives intact together with the main house and the front gate.
- How do I get to Ōya in Miho Village to see the Ozawa storehouse from outside?
- Buses on the JR Bus Kantō Kasumigaura line run from Tsuchiura Station toward Edosaki and reach Ōya in about 35 minutes. Please view only from the public road.
Basic Information
| Name | Ozawa Family Residence Rice Storehouse (小澤家住宅米蔵) |
|---|---|
| Location | Ōya, Miho Village, Inashiki District, Ibaraki Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structures) |
| Year Designated | Registered in 2009 (Heisei 21) |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | 6.8 meters by 3.9 meters; building area 35 square meters; 2 storeys, storehouse construction with sheet-metal roof |
| Owner | Private individual |
| Public Access | Not open to the public; stands within an occupied private residence |
References
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, National Cultural Properties Database: Ozawa Family Residence Rice Storehouse
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00007451
- Ibaraki Prefectural Board of Education, Cultural Properties of Ibaraki: Ozawa Family Residence Main House and two other structures
- https://kyoiku.pref.ibaraki.jp/bunkazai/bunkazai-registered-6066/
- Miho Village, Introduction to Cultural Properties
- https://www.vill.miho.lg.jp/kankou-event/minohobunkazai/bunkazai-syoukai/page000462.html
- Miho Village, Access to Miho Village
- https://www.vill.miho.lg.jp/page/page000265.html
Last verified: 2026.09.06