Kitamura Family Residence Post Office Building

A Storehouse That Became a Post Office

The Kitamura Family Residence Post Office Building (北村家住宅局舎) is a storehouse-built structure of the mid-Meiji era in Wakaho Kawada, Nagano City, Nagano Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) on March 2, 2004 (Agency for Cultural Affairs). From the mid-Taisho era until about 1939 it housed a post office (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency records a two-storey timber building with a tiled roof and a building area of 59 square metres; registration number 20-0174.

A Storehouse Beside the Gate

The Kitamura Family Residence Post Office Building stands toward the west on the north side of the plot, its east end touching the gate (Agency for Cultural Affairs). It is built as a Dozo-zukuri storehouse with a pan-tiled roof of the Okiyane type, a separate roof set over the fireproof body so that it could burn away without exposing the contents.

A small pent roof toward the east end of the north wall marks where the post office entrance was (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Nagano City describes a heavy storehouse door on the wall of this western storehouse, with the gabled, gently convex canopy from the post office years still in place below it; the city's Kawada-juku guidebook places the door on the upper floor.

Why It Was Registered

The Kitamura Family Residence Post Office Building was registered as a building that contributes to the historic landscape of the country (Agency for Cultural Affairs), which values it as a street-front storehouse that keeps the character of a modern-era village.

Nagano City, which on May 1, 2008, named the Kitamura Residence Landscape Important Building No. 5, describes its row gate as two storehouses joined together: the gate and this building.

The Post Office Years

According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs, the Kitamura Family Residence Post Office Building served as a post office from the mid-Taisho era until about 1939. Nagano City states only that it was a post office in the Taisho era, so the end date comes from the Agency record.

A landowner's storehouse on the post-town street thus became a public counter of the modern state, and the name kyokusha, meaning post office premises, comes from that period.

What to Look For

Focus on the north wall of the Kitamura Family Residence Post Office Building, facing the street. Find the pent roof near the east end, with its gently convex gabled form, and picture the post office door beneath it: a small porch added to a storehouse wall.

Higher up is the heavy storehouse door on the upper floor (Nagano City). Because the roof is an oki-yane, look under the eaves for the gap between wall and roof. Seen together with the gate to the east, the building shares the height and the skirting finish along the street.

Visiting

The Kitamura Family Residence is a private home, and no official information on access to the grounds or interiors was found. Plan to view it from the street, keeping clear of the doorway and of passing traffic.