Nishie Family Residence Grain Storehouse (Nishie Family Museum)

About the Nishie Family Residence Grain Storehouse

The Nishie Family Residence Grain Storehouse (西江家住宅穀蔵, Nishie-ke Jūtaku Kokugura), now the Nishie Family Museum, is a late Edo-period (1751 to 1829) two-storey storehouse on the cliff at the northeast corner of the Nishie family estate in Nariwa-cho Sakamoto, Takahashi City, Okayama Prefecture, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2003. Its registered name includes the museum name (西江家資料館).

It has a footprint of about 79 square meters under a gabled, pantiled roof. The southern half held rice and the northern half barley. Set on a stone wall at the cliff edge, it reads from outside the estate as a white block marking the northeast corner.

Only two of the estate's nine buildings are dated by the Agency for Cultural Affairs to the Edo period: the main house and the Nishie Family Residence Grain Storehouse.

Why the Grain Storehouse Was Registered

It was registered as contributing to the historic landscape. The Agency praises the careful workmanship: eaves and gable verges sealed in plaster, a small rain-shedding pent roof (mizukiri) wrapped around the walls, and namako tiling on the base, corners, above the pent roof and on the gables. It also notes how prominent the building is in the landscape.

The owners' visitor information presents this registered building as the estate's gōgura, the village granary where tax rice was gathered, which ties it to the family's role as district headmen running an office for the shogunate's intendant. Whether it served mainly the household or the villages cannot be settled from published sources.

What to Look For

Look for the mizukiri, the narrow pent roof that runs around the walls partway up. It throws rainwater clear so it does not stream down the lower wall. Bands of Namako-kabe tiling sit above and below it, so the walls step down in stripes of white and black.

The eaves and verges are plastered over too, leaving almost no timber exposed. The fireproofing logic of a storehouse is carried right into the details.

The site matters as well. Putting a building full of heavy grain at the edge of the stone wall made the Nishie Family Residence Grain Storehouse the landmark of the estate's northeast corner.

Visiting the Grain Storehouse

The Nishie Family Residence Grain Storehouse is used as the Nishie Family Museum, and the owners list both the village granary and the museum among the places open on booked visits.

Exhibits may not be photographed. Phone photography is otherwise allowed, staff point out where the buildings can be photographed, and commercial shoots are not permitted. Large bags are left at reception.

Directions and booking details are on the Nishie Family Residence page.