Asano Family Residence East Barn

What the Asano Family Residence East Barn Is

The Asano Family Residence East Barn (浅野家住宅東納屋, Asano-ke Jūtaku Higashi-naya) is a single-storey timber barn built around 1935 in Kyuhoji 5-chome, Yao City, Osaka Prefecture, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 8 November 2004. It stands behind the main house to the south, running along the eastern edge of the Asano estate.

The main block is 3 and a half by 2 bays, with a gabled Kirizuma-zukuri roof in Hongawarabuki tile. Its walls are white Shikkui plaster above a skirting of vertical boards. To the north it continues as a lower single-storey wing of 2 by 1 and a half bays, under a ridge set a step down. Together they cover 44 square metres, the largest of the four outbuildings on the estate.

At its south end the barn meets the north face of the Tatsumi Storehouse. The two were registered separately, but on the ground they form one continuous range along the east side of the plot.

Why It Was Registered

It was registered as a building contributing to the historic landscape. The Asano Family Residence East Barn is one of the three outbuildings raised around 1935 at the back of the plot, and it defines the east side of the yard that opens south of the main house.

What shapes the barn is the eave on its west side. Laid in lighter Sangawara-buki tiles, it runs south along the whole west face and continues without a break to the front of the Tatsumi Storehouse. On the yard side, that gives a covered walkway from the barn to the storehouse door.

For a barn, the main roof is in heavy hongawara and the walls are finished in white plaster. Of the outbuildings from around 1935, the Tatsumi Storehouse and South Barn are roofed in sangawara. This one was given the more careful specification.

What to Look For

Look at the changes of level in the roofs. The hongawara main roof, the sangawara eave dropped from it on the west, and the lower roof of the northern wing: three roof planes of different heights and tiling layered on one building.

The northern wing is what Japanese builders call an ochimune, a dropped-ridge addition set lower than the main block. It lets a building take on an extra room for a different purpose without growing any bulkier in outline.

The white plaster and vertical-board skirting match the two storehouses. Barn and storehouses share one wall finish, which ties together the group of buildings around the yard.

Visiting

The Asano Family Residence East Barn stands on private property and is not open (checked 27 September 2026). Set behind the main house at the back of the plot, it is only partly visible from the public road.

Keep photography to the street, and do not try to look into the grounds.