Yamada Ryokan New Storehouse

About the Yamada Ryokan New Storehouse

The Yamada Ryokan New Storehouse (山田旅館新土蔵, Yamada Ryokan Shindozo) is a two-storey earthen-walled storehouse at Otari Onsen in Otari Village, Nagano Prefecture, built in 1909 and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on October 12, 2001, under number 20-0097.

It has a sheet-metal roof and a building area of 85 square meters. The Yamada Ryokan New Storehouse was later turned into a small museum; the Agency for Cultural Affairs describes it as open to the public as the Otari Onsen Yamada Museum, and the inn lists it simply as its museum.

Why It Was Registered: A Storehouse at the Gate, Signed by Its Builder

The Yamada Ryokan New Storehouse was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape. According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs, it stands southeast of the Main Building on a stone retaining wall beside the entrance where the approach leaves the road. It is the first building visitors to Yamada Ryokan see, and it sets the scene at the entrance.

An ink inscription on the Munagi, the ridge beam, of the Yamada Ryokan New Storehouse records the year of construction and names its builders, among them the master carpenter Ogura Asajiro (小倉朝治郎) of Minami-Otari village. With both the builder's name and his home village on record, the inscription shows that local carpenters raised it at the end of the Meiji era.

The Agency also notes that the front section of the storehouse, the kuramae, was remodeled into two storeys. A building made to hold goods was adapted to receive visitors and show exhibits, and the change can be read in its form.

What to Look For: A Storehouse on a Stone Wall, and a Museum Since 1979

On the way in from the road, stop and look up at the Yamada Ryokan New Storehouse on its stone wall. Raised a level above the approach, it reads almost like a gatehouse for an inn built on a mountain slope. The Main Building lies beyond it to the northwest.

According to the inn, the storehouse opened as a museum in 1979 and has since introduced visitors to the bathing culture of the spa and the history of Otari. In other words, the inn has used one of its own historic buildings to tell its own story.

Look too at the junction between the remodeled front and the original storehouse behind it. A 1909 storehouse with a later two-storey front shows how the Yamada Ryokan New Storehouse has kept changing to stay in use.

Visiting the Yamada Ryokan New Storehouse

The exterior of the Yamada Ryokan New Storehouse can be seen from the approach to the inn entrance. The inn's website gives no opening days, hours or admission terms for the museum, so contact Yamada Ryokan in advance if you want to look inside (checked October 9, 2026).

The museum stands within a working inn, so ask at the same time whether photography of the interior and exhibits is allowed.