Hagiwara Family Residence Cotton Storehouse

About the Hagiwara Family Residence Cotton Storehouse

The Hagiwara Family Residence Cotton Storehouse (萩原家住宅木綿蔵, Hagiwara-ke Jūtaku Momengura) is a late Edo merchandise store, built between 1751 and 1830, in Onji Nakamachi, Yao City, Osaka Prefecture, and was entered on Japan's register of Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on September 10, 2019. It is a 2-story tiled Dozo-zukuri storehouse covering 30 square meters.

It stands on the north edge of the compound behind the main house, facing south. This is where the Hagiwaras, wholesalers of Kawachi cotton, kept their stock, and the family also calls it the Inui-gura, after its direction (northwest) from the main house. Chakichian describes it as 280 years old; the Agency for Cultural Affairs dates it to the late Edo period, 1751 to 1830.

Ship Planks on the Street Side

The Hagiwara cotton storehouse has a Kirizuma-zukuri gabled roof in heavy Hongawarabuki tiles, with an open-sided Geya lean-to along its south front. The walls are Shikkui plaster, ringed below the eaves by 2 Hachimaki bands.

The north wall, which faces the street, is clad with old boat planks laid horizontally. From the courtyard you see white plaster and the lean-to; from the street you see weathered planks, so the two faces of the building are quite different.

The Tatsumi storehouse has 3 hachimaki bands and this one has 2, a small difference between storehouses of the same period.

Sloping Beams Overhead

Inside, the Hagiwara Family Residence Cotton Storehouse has board floors on both levels. The roof is framed with Nobori-bari, beams that climb along the slope of the roof.

Sloping beams leave more headroom on the upper floor. For a store that kept cotton on 2 levels, a usable upper floor was probably worth the effort.

Registration and Recent Use

The Hagiwara Family Residence Cotton Storehouse was registered as contributing to the historic landscape of the country. The Agency for Cultural Affairs says it helps form the traditional layout of a merchant house on the Koya Kaido road. Its place in an L with the rice storehouse, closing off the back of the main house, is central to that assessment.

The family's restoration timeline says work on the cotton storehouse finished in 2020 and that it opened as the Kura Salon, a shared space for small businesses. The Chakichian home page, however, describes the Kura Salon as a converted rice storehouse, so the official descriptions do not agree on which building it occupies. The cotton storehouse's roof has also been fully retiled in recent years.

Visiting the Hagiwara Family Residence Cotton Storehouse

There are no viewing days for the Hagiwara Family Residence Cotton Storehouse (checked September 2026). Its plank-clad north wall faces the street and can be seen from outside.

The south front and its lean-to face the courtyard and can be seen from there while Chakichian is open. No photography rules are published, so ask before taking pictures on the property. Directions are on the Hagiwara Family Residence (Yao) page.