Former Inoue Family Residence Front Rice Storehouse

What Is the Former Inoue Family Residence Front Rice Storehouse?

The Former Inoue Family Residence Front Rice Storehouse (旧井上家住宅表米蔵, Kyū-Inoue-ke Jūtaku Omote no Komegura) is a late Edo-period rice storehouse on a village headman's estate in Kusaka, Higashiosaka City, Osaka Prefecture, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 15 August 2024.

The Former Inoue Family Residence Front Rice Storehouse occupies the southeast corner of the estate, beside an irrigation pond. It is the rice store at the front of the property, paired with the Rear Rice Storehouse at the back. Its building area is 48 square meters; it dates from the late Edo period, between 1830 and 1868, and was altered in the early Taisho period and in 1999.

Anchoring the Southeast Corner

The Former Inoue Family Residence Front Rice Storehouse is registration number 27-0925, entered for its contribution to the historic landscape. The Agency for Cultural Affairs calls it the key building in the view of the estate's southeast side.

The line of buildings along the eastern street, the East Barn and then the East Gate and Barn, ends here. Standing at the corner beside the pond, the Former Inoue Family Residence Front Rice Storehouse closes off the southeast of the estate.

Plastered Window Hoods and Open Eaves

The Former Inoue Family Residence Front Rice Storehouse has two storeys, a Kirizuma-zukuri gabled roof in Sangawara-buki tile and its long side as the front. The walls are plastered in Shikkui, but the underside of the eaves is left unplastered, so the rafters show. The band of bare timber above the white wall is one of the things that sets its exterior apart.

The south gable is the part to look for. Above each of its two windows is a small hood of overlapping boards, a yoroi-bisashi, here encased in plaster so that the rain hood reads as part of the wall.

The entrance is on the northwest, under its own canopy. Inside, the ground floor is boarded and split into two rooms, with the northeast corner partitioned off by a board wall; the upper floor is one boarded room. Like the East Barn further north, it has no door on its outward-facing sides.

Visiting the Former Inoue Family Residence Front Rice Storehouse

The Former Inoue Family Residence, including the Former Inoue Family Residence Front Rice Storehouse, is not open to the public, and the grounds cannot be entered.

Since the Former Inoue Family Residence Front Rice Storehouse is at the southeast corner, it is seen from the eastern street and the pond side. Look for the plastered hoods on the south gable; the northwest door is inside the estate and cannot be seen from outside. Directions are on the Former Inoue Family Residence page.