Former Oana Family Residence Book Storehouse

A Guarded Store for Papers

The Former Oana Family Residence Book Storehouse (旧小穴家住宅書庫) is a book storehouse of the late Taisho era (1919 to 1926) in Kitafukashi 1-chome, Matsumoto City, Nagano Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) on October 31, 2022 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency records a two-storey timber building roofed in tile, with a building area of 20 square metres, moved to its present spot around 1960; registration number 20-0613.

Two Storeys Behind Iron Shutters

The Former Oana Family Residence Book Storehouse is a two-storey building set east-west against the east side of the main house, with a tiled gable roof and its door in the west gable end (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Windows open on every side but the west, and each is hung with iron shutters. Inside there is one room on each floor, a staircase along the north wall and a traditional Japanese roof frame.

The walls are rendered in mortar today, but Matsumoto City notes that old photographs show plaster walls and eaves wrapped in the thick plaster band of a traditional kura storehouse. Saruta, who owned the house in the Showa era, called it his "dozo", or earthen storehouse.

Why It Was Registered

The Former Oana Family Residence Book Storehouse was registered as a building that contributes to the historic landscape of the country (Agency for Cultural Affairs), which describes it as a solidly secured store with iron shutters at its windows.

A Building That Moved

Matsumoto City believes the Former Oana Family Residence Book Storehouse was built as an outbuilding of the second home of the first owner, the Shimizu family. Kept apart from their shop in the town centre, it probably held household goods so that a single fire, a frequent danger in the crowded town, could not destroy everything at once. The city dates it to before 1920.

When the lawyer Oana Kiichi lived here, it stored the many papers his work produced (Matsumoto City). Around 1960 Saruta moved it south to make room for an office on the property, and it has stood in its present place since (Matsumoto City; Agency for Cultural Affairs).

What to Look For

At the Former Oana Family Residence Book Storehouse, look at the windows. According to Matsumoto City the iron shutters sit in red-painted frames, with vertical round steel bars inside, so that every opening is guarded twice.

A vent for the roof space opens high in each gable end (Matsumoto City). The two-storey storehouse also stands taller than the single-storey main house it adjoins on the east (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

Visiting

The Former Oana Family Residence Book Storehouse is privately owned and used as support space by the owner's law office, which does not accept general visitors (notice of July 2022). Because it stands behind the main house on the east, how much of it can be seen from the street has not been checked. Please do not enter the property. Directions are on the Former Oana Family Residence page.