Sato Family Residence East Rice Storehouse

A Second Rice Store, Built Against the First

The Sato Family Residence East Rice Storehouse (佐藤家住宅東米蔵, Satō-ke Jūtaku Higashi-komegura) is a rice storehouse of the final years of the Edo period on the estate of a former village headman's family in Chohoji (Chōhōji), Nagaokakyo, Kyoto Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2008.

It stands on the northern edge of the lot, built directly against the east end of the West Rice Storehouse. It is a single-storey kura of Dozo-zukuri construction, 5.0 metres by 3.0 metres, with a building area of 15 square metres. The two rice stores cover the same area, but where the West Rice Storehouse is nearly square, the East Rice Storehouse is a longer rectangle running east to west.

The first rice store went up in 1807; this second one was added toward the end of the Edo period. The pair suggests a headman's household handling more and more rice over the decades.

A Deep Porch Over a South Door

The roof is a gabled Kirizuma-zukuri form laid with pantiles, and a deep lean-to roof shelters the front. The walls are finished in Shikkui lime plaster, and the entrance is centred on the south face. The deep porch was most likely there to keep rain off the rice bales as they were carried in and out.

That doorway and porch face into the estate, toward the main house. Like its neighbour, the Sato Family Residence East Rice Storehouse turns a closed wall to the road and opens to the inside of the property.

Stepped Ridgelines

The storehouse was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape. The Agency for Cultural Affairs singles out the stepped ridges of the East and West Rice Storehouses, together with the gable of the New Storehouse, as giving the estate a varied profile.

Although the two rice stores touch, their ridges do not line up; the roofline drops a step where one meets the other. The row of kura along the north edge does not read as a flat line, and the different building dates show in the silhouette. The High Wall that wraps the east and north sides of the estate ends at this storehouse.

Visiting

The Sato Family Residence is a private home that is not open to the public, so the interior of the storehouse and the grounds cannot be visited. Its door and porch face into the estate and are hard to see from outside. If you look at the storehouses on the north edge, do so quietly from the public road and keep photography to the street.