Shimanouchi Yukiko Family Residence Barn

What the Shimanouchi Yukiko Family Residence Barn Is

The Shimanouchi Yukiko Family Residence Barn (島内章子家住宅納屋) is a late-Edo (1830 to 1867) barn with a pantiled Kirizuma-zukuri gable roof in Kamioka, Noichi-cho, Konan City, Kochi Prefecture, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 25 June 2002.

It adjoins the storehouse on the north and runs north to south along the passage on the west side of the estate. At 8 Ken by 3 ken, with a building area of 88 square metres, it is the largest of the three late-Edo buildings.

Sources disagree on its height. The Agency for Cultural Affairs database lists the structure of the Shimanouchi Yukiko Family Residence Barn as a two-storey timber building, while the description on the same page calls it single-storey. This article reports both.

Why It Was Registered

The Barn was registered as a model of form and design.

It has two different faces. On the east, toward the field, a lean-to Geya 1 and a half ken deep extends the working space under the eaves. On the west, toward the passage, the barn is dressed to look like a Nagayamon, the long gatehouse of a substantial rural family.

The official description points to that west side. The walls beside the entrance carry a sayagata key-fret pattern, and the roof is built in the Degeta-zukuri manner, with beams projecting to carry deep eaves. A building for tools and harvests was given a finished face where people would see it.

What to Look For

On the west face of the Shimanouchi Yukiko Family Residence Barn, look at the wall beside the doorway. Sayagata is an interlocking fret built from broken swastika shapes, a pattern familiar from Japanese textiles, and here it is set into a white wall.

Then look up at the eaves. In degeta-zukuri, brackets project from the posts to carry an outer beam, pushing the eaves well out. It is a feature associated with the fronts of townhouses, and on this barn it deepens the shadow along the passage side.

The long 8-ken ridge continues the line of the storehouse to the south. Round the back, the lean-to drops low toward the field. Front and back, the building does two different jobs.

Visiting

The Shimanouchi Yukiko Family Residence Barn is an outbuilding of a private home and is not open. Neither the Kochi Prefecture nor the Konan City lists give any visiting information (checked 27 September 2026).

Its most interesting side faces the west passage, but it has not been confirmed whether that passage is a public way. Check on site before trying to see the west face; the east side faces the field behind the house and cannot be approached from outside.