Zeitaku Mame Honpo Main Store

A Meiji Townhouse, Two Storehouses and a Postwar Parlour on Sanjo-dori

The Zeitaku Mame Honpo Main Store (ぜいたく豆本舗本店) is a group of four buildings belonging to a bean-confectionery shop on Sanjo-dori in Tsunofuricho, Nara City, Nara Prefecture; led by a main house from the early Meiji era, all four were entered on the national register as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on December 1, 2003.

The name reads Zeitaku Mame Honpo Honten, and the shop's sweets were sold simply as zeitaku mame, roughly "luxury beans". A local-history page compiled by volunteer supporters of the Nara Prefectural Library and Information Center traces the brand to 1910, when the business began processing and selling snacks made from broad beans, a local product. The Agency for Cultural Affairs dates the main house to the early Meiji era, so the building is older than the business that later made its name.

According to the same library page, the Sanjo-dori shop of Zeitaku Mame Honpo closed at the end of May 2016, and on August 5 that year a Lawson convenience store, Lawson Nara Tsunofuricho, opened in the main house. The registered name has not changed.

How the Zeitaku Mame Honpo Main Store Is Laid Out

The main house of the Zeitaku Mame Honpo Main Store stands on the north side of Sanjo-dori, the street that runs east from JR Nara Station toward Sarusawa Pond, with its front facing the street. It is a Machiya, a merchant townhouse, and a courtyard opens up behind it.

At the back of the lot the East Storehouse and West Storehouse sit side by side with their eaves touching. A small reception room from around 1951 is attached to the courtyard side of the West Storehouse. Walking in from the street you would pass the shop, then the courtyard, then the parlour, and finally the two storehouses; the Agency's notes describe the East Storehouse as one of the buildings that frame the courtyard behind the main house.

What the Zeitaku Mame Honpo Main Store Registration Covers

The four buildings were registered together in the 39th round of registrations, under numbers 29-0070 (main house), 29-0071 (East Storehouse), 29-0072 (West Storehouse) and 29-0073 (former reception room). The main house qualified as a building that contributes to the historic landscape of the country; the other three were registered as buildings that serve as a model of good design.

The Agency dates the main house and the West Storehouse to the early Meiji era, the East Storehouse to the first half of Meiji, and the reception room to around 1951. Building areas are 133 square metres for the main house, 19 for the East Storehouse, 18 for the West Storehouse and 14 for the reception room, so the street-front house is far larger than the rest.

Nara City's list of registered properties places the Zeitaku Mame Honpo Main Store in its Naramachi area, within the Tsubai elementary-school district, and gives the East Storehouse as early Meiji rather than the Agency's "first half of Meiji". The owner field is blank for all four buildings in the Agency's database.

Visiting the Zeitaku Mame Honpo Main Store

Because the main house of the Zeitaku Mame Honpo Main Store now operates as a convenience store, anyone can walk into the ground floor as a customer while the shop is open, and the store is listed as open 24 hours. If you would like to take photographs inside, ask the staff first.

We could not find any current arrangement for visiting the East Storehouse, the West Storehouse or the former reception room at the back of the lot. From Sanjo-dori you can study the street front and roofline of the main house.

The nearest station is Kintetsu-Nara on the Kintetsu Nara Line, about 250 metres away in a straight line, or around 4 minutes on foot. From JR Nara Station the walk east along Sanjo-dori is roughly 900 metres and takes about 12 minutes.