Matsumoto Family Residence North Compound Inui Storehouse

About the Matsumoto Family Residence North Compound Inui Storehouse

The Matsumoto Family Residence North Compound Inui Storehouse (松本家住宅北屋敷乾蔵, Matsumoto-ke Jūtaku Kita-yashiki Inuigura) is a two-storey clay-walled storehouse built in 1930 at the north-east corner of the North Compound, across the road from the main house of the Matsumoto estate in Kodera, Koryo Town, Nara Prefecture, and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2017.

The Matsumoto Family Residence North Compound Inui Storehouse measures 11.8 by 3.8 metres, rising a full two storeys under a gabled roof of traditional tiles, with a pantiled lean-to on the east side. It has a building area of 45 m², and the registration includes an attached clay wall. It was renovated in 1998.

The Only Building with a Firm Date

Of the 13 registered buildings, this is the only one with an exact year. The rest are dated to the early Showa or Meiji periods; the Inui storehouse is given as 1930, which offers a rough fix for when the other early Showa buildings may have been going up.

Inui is the old name for the north-west, from the zodiac signs of the dog and the boar. Yet the Agency for Cultural Affairs places the storehouse in the north-east corner of the North Compound. The published sources do not explain the mismatch.

Raised High on Cut Stone

The Matsumoto Family Residence North Compound Inui Storehouse stands on a tall base of dressed stone. Lifting the floor well off the ground kept damp and floodwater away from the contents, a sensible precaution in a low-lying village ringed by moats.

Inside, each floor is a single undivided room, reached through a door in the middle of the east side. Long and narrow, it offers two floors of uninterrupted storage.

The east lean-to gives a sheltered space in front of the door. The Agency describes it as a storehouse that shapes the view along the north side of the estate, and it was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape.

Seeing the Matsumoto Family Residence North Compound Inui Storehouse

The Matsumoto Family Residence North Compound Inui Storehouse belongs to a private home and its interior is not open.

Tucked into the far corner of the North Compound, it is probably visible from the road to the south only as a tiled roof beyond the gatehouse. Please do not look into the grounds. Directions are on the Matsumoto Family Residence (Koryo Town) page.