Rikyudo Sakai Family Residence Storehouse

A 2-Storey Tool Store Behind the House

The Rikyudo Sakai Family Residence Storehouse (利久堂酒井家住宅土蔵, Rikyūdō Sakai-ke Jūtaku Dozō) is a 2-storey earthen-walled storehouse in Kawai Shinden, Nagano City, built around 1887 and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property of Japan in 2001. It stands northwest of the Main House on the homestead of the Kitamura family, a household of doctors, and was used to keep household equipment and tools.

It is built in the Dozo-zukuri fireproof manner, roofed in tile, with a building area of 79 square meters. The ridge runs north to south under a gabled Kirizuma-zukuri roof of Sangawara-buki pantiles, and the doors are on a long side, the arrangement called Hirairi. Measuring 5.5 by 2.5 Ken, it is the larger of the two storehouses on the property.

Hard to Build Again

The Rikyudo Sakai Family Residence Storehouse holds registration number 20-0102 and is the only one of the five structures registered as being difficult to reproduce.

An earthen-walled storehouse is made by packing and plastering clay onto a timber frame, coat after coat, until the walls are thick enough to resist fire. Each layer normally has to dry before the next goes on, so the work takes a long time and a skilled plasterer. Building the same thing today with the same materials and methods would be a real undertaking. The survival of a mid-Meiji storehouse together with its lean-to and canopy is the likely basis for the listing.

What to Notice at the Rikyudo Sakai Family Residence Storehouse

The Rikyudo Sakai Family Residence Storehouse is more than a closed box. A lean-to roof, or Geya, is attached to its north gable end and carried forward to the east to form what the records call the north gate. In other words, an addition to the storehouse doubles as a rear entrance to the grounds, separate from the Nagayamon Gate at the front.

Along the east side, a canopy described as iron construction shelters a working apron in front of the doors, where goods were loaded, unloaded and sorted out of the rain. Because the doors are on the long side, this east-facing canopy, turned toward the Main House, covers the entrance. The Agency for Cultural Affairs record does not describe the ironwork in more detail than that.

Inside there are 2 floors. The small Miso Storehouse stands directly against the south side, so two storehouses with different jobs sit shoulder to shoulder.

Seeing the Rikyudo Sakai Family Residence Storehouse

The Rikyudo Sakai Family Residence Storehouse stands at the back of the grounds, northwest of the house. The property is private, and no opening of the interior or visitor program has been announced (checked September 2026). From the gate side to the south it is screened by the Main House, so a full view from outside is unlikely.

The north gate may still be in daily use as an entrance, so do not approach it or look in. Any request to see the storehouse should go through the Cultural Properties Division of Nagano City; directions to the estate are on the Rikyudo Sakai Family Residence page.