Imai Family Residence (Imai Okoyasumi Honjin) Plank Storehouse

What the Plank Storehouse Is

Imai Family Residence (Imai Okoyasumi Honjin) Plank Storehouse stands towards the north-east of the grounds at Imai in Okaya City, Nagano Prefecture, dates from the middle of the Edo period, roughly 1661 to 1750, and became a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 14 October 1999.

It is a plain board-walled store, single-storey, roofed in sheet iron, with a footprint of 64 square metres. The front bay has no walls at all and stands open. Tradition holds that it took the boards sawn in the lumber shed behind it.

This may be the oldest building on the estate. The weathering of its timbers, and the fact that its axis is turned slightly away from that of the main house and the other outbuildings, suggest that it predates them.

Why It Was Registered

Imai Family Residence (Imai Okoyasumi Honjin) Plank Storehouse was listed as contributing to the historic landscape. That a plain boarded working store, neither a plastered treasury nor a gate of rank, carries a national listing says a good deal about how this estate was assessed.

Judged as a single working whole, the estate needs somewhere to keep sawn boards. Timber was cut in the shed, stacked in the store, and drawn on when the house or the storehouses needed repair. That cycle is what allowed the household to keep building for itself.

What to Look For

Check the orientation. Imai Family Residence (Imai Okoyasumi Honjin) Plank Storehouse does not line up with the main house or the other outbuildings; its axis is slightly askew. That misalignment is the visible clue that it stood here before the rest of the estate took its present arrangement.

Look at the open bay across the front. Posts carry the roof with no wall behind them, making a working floor for moving boards in and out, and a place where timber could go on drying. It is a shape that follows directly from what the building held.

The board surfaces carry the marks of weathering. Wind and rain wear the softer growth away first, leaving the grain standing in ridges. It reads best when the light comes in at a low angle.

Visiting

Imai Family Residence (Imai Okoyasumi Honjin) Plank Storehouse lies north of the main house, towards the eastern side. From the old Nakasendo it sits behind the house, so only a limited part can be seen from the road.

The estate is a private residence. The grounds cannot be entered and the interiors are closed. Photograph from the road. The cultural properties staff of the Okaya City Board of Education can advise on access. (Checked in September 2026.)