Ikekawa Family Residence East Storehouse

About the Ikekawa Family Residence East Storehouse

The Ikekawa Family Residence East Storehouse (池川家住宅東蔵, Ikekawa-ke Jūtaku Higashigura) is a 2-story Dozo-zukuri storehouse from the early Showa period on the east side of the main house of the Ikekawa Family Residence in Nakamachi, Nara City, Nara Prefecture, and it was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2018.

It faces south, with its doorway in the south wall under a lean-to roof (Geya). The building is gabled (Kirizuma-zukuri) with Sangawara-buki pantiles and covers 19 square meters. It dates from the early Showa period (1926 to 1945) and was renovated in 2010.

Why the Ikekawa East Storehouse was registered

The Ikekawa Family Residence East Storehouse was registered as contributing to the historic landscape. The Agency for Cultural Affairs notes that plaster has been carried right over the window hoods and the underside of the eaves, and calls it a carefully made storehouse.

Nara City likewise describes the east and west storehouses as carefully finished in plaster, and counts them, together with the annex, among the buildings that convey how a Nara family estate was laid out in the modern era. Standing just east of the main house, the East Storehouse is the one of the two storehouses closer to the front of the estate.

What to look for at the Ikekawa East Storehouse

Look first at the base of the front wall. On the Ikekawa Family Residence East Storehouse it is finished in washed artificial stone, a plasterer's technique in which a mix of cement and crushed stone is applied and the surface is washed so the grains stand out. The method spread in the modern era, and here it gives the foot of a traditional white storehouse a hard, speckled skin.

The doorway is framed in black plaster, a dark outline set into the white Shikkui wall that sharpens the whole front. The other three sides are plastered with vertical boards protecting the lower wall. The costly finishes are concentrated on the front, while the sides and back rely on simple boarding.

Under the eaves run three stepped plaster bands (Hachimaki). The roof is of the Okiyane type, a separate roof set over the earthen body of the storehouse. Even the window hoods and the eave soffits are plastered over, leaving almost no exposed wood. It is a small building of 19 square meters, but a great many steps went into its finish.

Visiting the Ikekawa Family Residence East Storehouse

The Ikekawa Family Residence East Storehouse is part of a private home, and we found no notice of the interior being opened as of October 2026. It stands east of the main house facing south, but we have not confirmed how much of it can be seen from the prefectural road.

Please do not enter the grounds, and keep any photographs to what is visible from the road. The estate layout and directions are on the Ikekawa Family Residence page.