Yamada Liquor Store (Haseji Teahouse) Inner Storehouse

A Storehouse as Old as the Shop

The Yamada Liquor Store (Haseji Teahouse) Inner Storehouse (山田酒店（茶房長谷路）内蔵, Yamada Saketen Sabō Haseji Uchigura) is a 2-storey Dozo-zukuri storehouse built in 1812 at Yamada Liquor Store on the Hasedera temple approach in Hatsuse, Sakurai City, Nara Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on December 4, 2000. Its building area is 22 square meters.

According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs, the storehouse went up at the same time as the main house, which was built after a river flood in 1811. Shop and storehouse were therefore put in order together the year after the flood. Of the six Yamada Liquor Store structures registered together, only these two date back to the Edo period.

Uchigura, "inner storehouse", is the usual term for a storehouse set within the family compound rather than on the street.

Moved Whole in the Taishō Period

The most striking fact about the Yamada Liquor Store inner storehouse is that it no longer stands where it was built.

The Agency records that when the compound was reorganised into its present form in the Taishō period, the storehouse was shifted to its current position by Hikiya, lifting the building and moving it intact rather than dismantling it. A heavy, earth-walled storehouse was relocated without being rebuilt. The Agency's database gives the early Taishō period, including this move, as 1912 to 1925.

It now stands in the northeast corner of the lot, joined to the teahouse zashiki built in the same years. The original position is not recorded, but the Edo storehouse ended up paired with the new Taishō guest wing, and its history shows clearly how the whole compound was rearranged at that time.

Plastered Walls and Barred Windows

The Yamada Liquor Store inner storehouse has two storeys under a gabled Kirizuma-zukuri roof laid with pantiles. The walls are sealed in Shikkui lime plaster, and the windows are fitted with iron bars.

Wrapping thick clay walls in plaster was how Japanese storehouses guarded their contents against fire, and the iron bars kept hands from reaching in. It is a plain, practical exterior for a building meant to hold stock and household goods.

The Agency calls it valuable as the storehouse of a liquor shop that has continued since the late Edo period. It carries registration number 29-0042 and was registered as contributing to the historic landscape of the country.

Visiting the Inner Storehouse of Yamada Liquor Store

No interior access to the Yamada Liquor Store inner storehouse is announced. It stands in the northeast corner of the lot, joined to the teahouse zashiki and well back from the approach.

Even when you enter the garden as a Haseji Teahouse customer, how much of the storehouse exterior can be seen is not published. According to the Sakurai City Tourism Association, the teahouse opens from 11:00 a.m. and has no fixed closing day. No photography policy is published; ask the staff.