Mizuhosu (Onishi Family Residence) Rice Storehouse

What the Mizuhosu (Onishi Family Residence) Rice Storehouse Is

The Mizuhosu (Onishi Family Residence) Rice Storehouse (瑞穂酢（大西家住宅）米蔵, komegura) is a two-storey earthen-walled storehouse of the early Taisho era (1912 to 1918) in Nakamachi, Kashihara City, Nara Prefecture, entered on the register of Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 27 February 2023. It stretches out south of the Onishi family's main house. At 179 square metres it is the second largest of the eleven listed structures, after the main house.

It held rice and other raw materials for vinegar. Brewing here begins with growing koji and making sake, so a large stock of good rice had to be kept close at hand. Today the building serves as a store for ingredients and supplies. It was repaired in the mid-Showa era.

The building has an earlier identity. According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs, the Mizuhosu (Onishi Family Residence) Rice Storehouse was originally a Nagayamon, a gate building with doors.

Why It Was Listed

The Rice Storehouse was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape. The agency places it among the vinegar production buildings ranged along the south side of the estate.

What makes it interesting is how clearly its conversion into a store can still be read. The building stands on stone footings laid along a former property line, and it keeps the central passage it had as a gate. Gates stand on a boundary, so the position and the passage together suggest that the southern edge of the estate once ran here. As the property grew, the gate ended up inside it and was converted into a store for raw materials.

It is built in Dozo-zukuri style, two storeys of earthen wall under a gabled pantile roof, with a pent roof on the north side, facing the main house.

What to Look For

The most striking feature of the Mizuhosu (Onishi Family Residence) Rice Storehouse is the passage through the middle of its long body. A storehouse has no need for such an opening; it is the memory of the gate, built into the structure. Storage on either side of a central way repeats the nagayamon pattern of rooms flanking the entrance.

Look down at the stonework as well. The old boundary wall is both the building's foundation and a line that records how the estate expanded. To the southwest, the former koji room sits on hexagonal cut-stone masonry, so the site offers two different ways of laying stone within a short distance.

Two storeys of earthen wall stretched out at length give the south side of the compound the solid bulk of an embankment. Rice is heavy and takes up space, and this store was built with both floor area and height to hold it.

Visiting

The Mizuhosu (Onishi Family Residence) Rice Storehouse is still in use as a warehouse for ingredients and supplies, and its interior is closed (checked 17 September 2026).

Because it lies south of the main house, it is hidden behind the house when seen from the north street and is hard to make out from outside. The central passage is also within the enclosure and cannot be walked through. A full view depends on any tour the owners may offer.