Tanaka Family Residence West Barn

A Barn Set Back from the Road

The Tanaka Family Residence West Barn (田中家住宅西納屋, Tanaka-ke Jūtaku Nishi-naya) is a barn of the Taishō era (1912 to 1926) standing west of the front barn on the southern half of the Tanaka compound in Iitakacho Hase, Matsusaka City, Mie Prefecture, and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on November 2, 2018. It was renovated in 1990.

It is a 2-storey timber building under a gabled, pantiled roof with a building area of 40 square metres, set back a little from the old Wakayama Kaidō highway and facing east.

Part of the Roadside Scene

The Agency for Cultural Affairs counts the Tanaka Family Residence West Barn among the elements that make up the historic scene along the highway, and it was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape. West of it runs the south earthen wall, which closes the western edge of the southern plot, so barn and wall together finish that end of the property.

It is one of the later of the eleven registered items, yet its front uses the same townhouse vocabulary as the Meiji-era main house: slatted mushiko windows and a projecting lattice bay.

Mushiko Windows and a Lattice Bay

On the front of the Tanaka West Barn a doorway sits toward the north end and a window with a projecting lattice fills the southern half, all under a continuous lean-to roof. The walls are white plaster in the Shinkabe manner, with the posts left visible, and a mushiko window opens on the upper floor.

The sides and back, by contrast, are covered in clapboard; the plaster is saved for the face that people see. The new storehouse on the same property treats its lower walls the same way.

Seeing the West Barn

Because the Tanaka Family Residence West Barn is set back from the road and faces east, its front is probably seen at an angle from the highway side. The Tanaka Family Museum's official information does not say whether the interior is opened.