Tatsumi Family Residence Second Rice Storehouse

Anchoring the Southeast Corner

The Tatsumi Family Residence Second Rice Storehouse (辰巳家住宅二の米蔵, Tatsumi-ke Jūtaku Ni-no-komegura) is a two-story Dozo-zukuri rice storehouse built in 1915 in Hōryūji-nishi, Ikaruga Town, Nara Prefecture, and registered as a national Registered Tangible Cultural Property on April 24, 2001. It sits in the southeast corner of the Tatsumi estate, its ridge running east to west.

It carries a gabled (Kirizuma-zukuri) roof of heavy Hongawarabuki tiles and has a building area of 48 square meters. The First Rice Storehouse and the barn stand to its north and the Third Rice Storehouse to its west, so the line of storehouses along the east side turns the corner here.

A Front and Three Guarded Sides

The walls are finished in lime plaster. The north side, with its eave, is the front. On the other three sides, east, south and west, wooden wainscoting runs high up the wall. Because the building occupies a corner, its east and south walls face the outside world, and the boards protect them from wind and rain.

The Tatsumi Family Residence Second Rice Storehouse was registered, as number 29-0055, as a structure that would be difficult to reproduce. The official description calls it an important element of the estate's overall appearance.

The Gable Above the Wall

The east side is where this storehouse shows itself. With the ridge running east to west, the triangular gable faces east, and it rises above the tall earthen wall, displaying a broad noki-jabara, the layered plaster moldings built up under the eaves.

Noki-jabara protects the eaves of a storehouse from fire and gives the top of the wall a sharp, shadowed edge. Here you see white plaster, the molded band, and heavy round-and-flat tiles above. Only the upper part shows over the wall, but it is this gable that defines the east face of the estate.

That visible gable is most likely what the official description has in mind when it calls the storehouse an important part of the estate's appearance.

Visiting

The Tatsumi Family Residence Second Rice Storehouse is one of the easier buildings to see. Walk around to the east side of the estate and the upper part of the gable, with its plaster moldings, appears above the wall.

The eave-covered north front faces into the yard and cannot be seen. The estate is a private home; as of September 2026 no opening had been announced and the grounds are closed. Photograph from the lane rather than reaching over the wall. Directions are on the Tatsumi Family Residence page.