Horii Family Residence Milling Shed

A Waterwheel Mill in a Family Estate

The Horii Family Residence Milling Shed (堀井家住宅粉挽小屋) is a water-powered milling shed of the late Edo period (1830 to 1867) in Anashi, Sakurai City, Nara Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) on March 2, 2004 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency records a single-storey timber building with a sheet-iron roof and a building area of 60 square metres; registration number 29-0086.

A Workshop beside the House

The Horii Family Residence Milling Shed stands against the south gable of the main house, a single-storey timber building under a gabled sheet-iron roof (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

A channel of water was led into its east end, the end facing the street, and a waterwheel set there drove the work inside: pressing oil, polishing rice and grinding flour, including the raw material for Miwa somen noodles (Agency for Cultural Affairs). One source of power served several trades under one roof.

Why It Was Registered

The Agency describes it as a plain building that nonetheless records how people in the area made their living, and registered it for its contribution to the historic landscape.

What to Look For

The part to look for is the east gable, where the water channel came in (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Bringing the river's power into the building was the whole reason the shed existed.

Miwa somen are hand-stretched wheat noodles made around Miwa in Sakurai, and this shed ground part of the flour that went into them (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Its place right beside the main house shows how close work and home were.

Visiting

The shed turns its east gable toward the street (Agency for Cultural Affairs). No official information on interior access was found, and public sources do not say whether the waterwheel survives.