Okahashi Family Residence North Rice Storehouse

About the Okahashi Family Residence North Rice Storehouse

The Okahashi Family Residence North Rice Storehouse (岡橋家住宅北米蔵, Okahashi-ke Jūtaku Kita-komegura) is a late Taisho-period rice storehouse east of the main storehouse on the Okahashi estate in Ozukucho, Kashihara City, Nara Prefecture, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 17 August 2020 (No. 29-0312).

It is a single-storey building with a building area of 115 square metres, the largest footprint of the seven Okahashi storehouses and larger even than the 2-storey main storehouse at 98 square metres. Among the three rice storehouses, east, south and north, it stands well ahead, 1.6 times the size of the east rice storehouse, which covers 70 square metres.

The roof is heavy Hongawarabuki tiling, with a lean-to (Geya) over the door on the south side. The Agency for Cultural Affairs dates it to the late Taisho period, between 1919 and 1926, without fixing a year.

Why the north rice storehouse was registered

The Okahashi Family Residence North Rice Storehouse was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape. The Agency credits it, together with the main storehouse, with giving the estate a firm and weighty composition.

The storehouses gather along the north edge of the plot, and this one pairs with the main storehouse at its west to form the north front. A tall, many-windowed 2-storey store beside a long, low single-storey one: the contrast gives depth to the back of the estate.

The construction is distinctive too. The Agency describes it as a timber-framed single-storey building with plastered storehouse walls and a tiled roof. A wooden frame wrapped in fireproof plaster, in other words, and the interior finish makes that frame plain to see.

What to look for in the north rice storehouse

Inside are two boarded rooms, east and west. The walls are finished in the Shinkabe manner with the posts and the tie beams (Nuki) that pass through them left exposed under a mid-coat of plaster. Storehouses are normally built the other way, with the frame buried in thick plaster in the Ōkabe manner, and at the Okahashi estate the east and south rice storehouses are done that way inside. Only the north rice storehouse shows its frame.

The roof is framed with a Truss, the same choice as the inner storehouse of 1919. Two storehouses built within a few years of each other both adopted a method that had spread to Japan after the Meiji Restoration.

Outside, the walls are finished in Shikkui plaster over vertical boarding (Tateita-bari), and the windows carry small bracketed hoods (Mochiokuri) matching the other storehouses.

Visiting the north rice storehouse

The Okahashi Family Residence North Rice Storehouse stands on the north side of the estate, east of the main storehouse. How much of it can be seen from the lanes outside has not been confirmed, and the interior with its exposed frame and truss roof is not open.

As of September 2026 the private estate had no public opening days. Directions, and a guide to the buildings that can definitely be seen from the road such as the nagayamon gate and the east rice storehouse, are on the Okahashi Family Residence page.