Fujimoto Family Residence South Rice Storehouse

The Fujimoto Family Residence South Rice Storehouse

The Fujimoto Family Residence South Rice Storehouse (藤本家住宅南米蔵, Fujimoto-ke Jūtaku Minamikomegura) is a two-storey early Meiji-period earthen storehouse (Dozo-zukuri) in Fujiidera City, Osaka Prefecture, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on October 18, 2006. It occupies the southeast corner of the estate, just east of the back gate, with its ridge running north to south.

It measures 4 by 2 and a half Ken bays and covers 40 square metres under a gabled (Kirizuma-zukuri) pantile roof (Sangawara-buki). Inside it is split into a north and a south room, and the north room is divided again east to west. Two doorways open in the west wall beneath a lean-to eave (Tsuchibisashi). The gable end facing the south street has board wainscoting at its base, matched to the fences.

Why It Was Registered

The Fujimoto Family Residence South Rice Storehouse was listed for its contribution to the historic landscape. Set at the corner of the estate, it turns its gable to the south street and closes off the eastern end of a frontage that runs from the east barn past the back gate.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs singles out the boarded base of that gable, which was designed to match the fencing. The concern was less the storehouse on its own than how it would look as part of the estate's outer wall.

What to Look For

The interior is divided into three rooms: two from north to south, with the northern one split again. That arrangement suggests goods sorted by kind, rice among them, though the sources do not say what each room held.

The two doorways match the division. Both are on the west wall, under the same eave, facing the work yard inside the back gate, so goods could move straight between yard and store. The north rice storehouse, by contrast, opens onto the main house's earthen floor; the two rice stores served different routes through the household.

The roofs differ too: round-and-flat tiles on the north rice storehouse, pantiles on the Fujimoto Family Residence South Rice Storehouse.

Visiting the Fujimoto Family Residence South Rice Storehouse

The Fujimoto Family Residence South Rice Storehouse belongs to a private home and its interior is closed. The west wall with the doorways faces the work yard and cannot be seen from outside.

The south gable can be seen from the public road. Walk south along the west-side lane, turn east at the southwest corner, and it stands at the far corner beyond the back gate. Directions from the station are on the Fujimoto Family Residence page.