Ninomiya Family Residence Miso Storehouse and Household Rice Storehouse

Two Kitchen Stores Under One Roof

The Ninomiya Family Residence Miso Storehouse and Household Rice Storehouse (二宮家住宅味噌蔵及び飯米蔵, Ninomiya-ke Jūtaku Misogura oyobi Hanmaigura) is a single-storey timber store built in 1893 on the Ninomiya estate in Hasuno, Seirō Town, Niigata Prefecture, and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2006. It has a tiled roof and a building area of 70 square metres.

One building, two rooms: the east end held miso, the west end held hanmai, the rice the household and its servants ate each day. That makes it a kitchen store, quite different from the big rice stores that received rent rice from tenants. The west room has a raised floor to keep the grain dry.

The building measures 8 and a half bays by 2 and a half, with a separately built gabled roof of pantiles and its ridge running east to west. It stands just west of the estate's workshop, which dates from 1919.

Why It Was Registered

The Ninomiya Family Residence Miso Storehouse and Household Rice Storehouse was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape. The Agency for Cultural Affairs draws attention to its south side, where its Tsuchibisashi eave runs straight on into the workshop's eave, so the two buildings present a single front.

The store and the workshop are a quarter of a century apart, yet their eaves were lined up to make one long covered strip along the south. Making miso, moving rice and preparing farm work could all go on under the same roof in any weather. The estate's back-of-house routine was solved by how the buildings were placed.

The walls are worth a look. The lower part is clad in boards held by notched battens and the upper part is finished in white Shikkui plaster. It is a practical finish, plainer than the namako-kabe of the family's formal storehouses, and it shows the Ninomiyas matching the finish to the job.

What to Look For

From the south, follow the eave as it runs from this store into the workshop. You can tell where one building ends by the change in roof height and wall finish.

The split between miso room and rice room is hard to see from outside, but because the west room's floor is raised, the ground level around its door may differ. If you can get close, look at the height of the base.

Visiting

The interior of the Ninomiya Family Residence Miso Storehouse and Household Rice Storehouse is not open. It stands just west of the workshop, and how close the opening-season route comes varies from year to year.

To see the continuous eave, look from the south with the workshop in the same view. Follow the on-site guidance on photography.