Zeitaku Mame Honpo Main Store Main House

What Is the Zeitaku Mame Honpo Main Store Main House?

The Zeitaku Mame Honpo Main Store Main House (ぜいたく豆本舗本店主屋, Zeitaku Mame Honpo Honten Shuoku) is a two-storey wooden Machiya townhouse from the early Meiji era facing Sanjo-dori in Tsunofuricho, Nara City, Nara Prefecture, and it was registered as a national Registered Tangible Cultural Property on December 1, 2003.

It is the front building on the Zeitaku Mame Honpo lot, with a tiled roof and a building area of 133 square metres. The Agency for Cultural Affairs files it under commercial buildings rather than houses. For decades it was the counter of a bean-snack shop; since 2016 it has housed a convenience store.

Why the Main House Was Registered

The Zeitaku Mame Honpo Main Store Main House carries registration number 29-0070, and it was listed for its contribution to the historic landscape of the country. The storehouses and the reception room on the same lot were chosen as models of good design; the main house was valued for what it does for the street.

The Agency's description opens with its position on Sanjo-dori in central Nara and ends by calling it a building that keeps the look of old Nara's merchant quarter alive. Sanjo-dori cuts east to west through the old town, and the survival of a Meiji shopfront along it is the reason for the listing.

What to Look for at the Zeitaku Mame Honpo Main Store Main House

Start with the low upper floor. The house is built in the Tsushi-nikai manner, a half-height second storey, so from the street the upper eaves sit close above the shop. Low as it looks, the upper floor holds two rows of rooms running east to west, laid out as living space rather than a loft for storage.

The line of the facade has its own history. When Sanjo-dori was widened, the front of the Zeitaku Mame Honpo Main Store Main House was cut back by one ken, about 1.8 metres. The frontage you see on the pavement today is set further back than the one first built.

The ground floor changed too. Originally the western half had a raised wooden floor while the rest was a beaten-earth Doma; after several rounds of alteration the entire ground floor became doma. A wide, level floor at street height suits a shop where goods are laid out for customers to browse.

Visiting the Zeitaku Mame Honpo Main Store Main House

The Zeitaku Mame Honpo Main Store Main House trades as Lawson Nara Tsunofuricho, so you can step inside the ground floor as a customer; the store is listed as open 24 hours. We could not confirm any access to the upper floor. Please ask the staff before taking photographs inside.

The exterior is visible from the Sanjo-dori pavement. To take in the low second storey as a whole, cross to the opposite side of the street.

The house is about 4 minutes on foot from Kintetsu-Nara Station and about 12 minutes from JR Nara Station.