Kaname Family Residence Kanenoto Storehouse

A Small Storehouse with a Triple Door

The Kaname Family Residence Kanenoto Storehouse (要家住宅唐戸蔵, Kaname-ke Jūtaku Kanenoto-gura) is a late-Edo-period fireproof storehouse on the Kaname family estate in Hatakenaka 2-chome, Kaizuka, Osaka Prefecture, listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on June 28, 2017. The characters 唐戸蔵 would normally be read karatogura, but both the Agency for Cultural Affairs and Kaizuka City give the reading kanenotogura.

It stands northeast of the main house with its front to the north, touching the Michi Storehouse on its east side and facing the Utensil Storehouse across a small yard; the three together form a U. The building is a 2-storey Dozo-zukuri structure of 2 by 1.5 ken, only 11 square metres in area and the smallest of the four listed storehouses, with a gabled roof of hongawara tile.

Why It Was Listed

The Kaname Family Residence Kanenoto Storehouse was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape, as part of the storehouse group that shapes the eastern side of the estate.

Its character lies in a mismatch between size and security. It is the smallest of the four storehouses yet has by far the most elaborate doorway, which the Agency for Cultural Affairs singles out as especially strong. Strength over space suggests it held the household's most valuable goods, though no surviving source says what they were.

A note on the name. Kane can mean metal, which invites a link to the iron-clad door described below, but no source explains the name, so that connection remains a guess.

Three Doors Deep

The doorway of the Kaname Family Residence Kanenoto Storehouse holds three doors, one behind the other. Outermost is a single-leaf wooden door, then a wooden door faced with iron plate, and innermost a lattice door. The first keeps off weather, the second resists fire and intruders, and the lattice lets air circulate when the solid doors stand open while still barring the way in. Stacking doors with different jobs gave a single opening layer upon layer of protection.

Above the doorway a small canopy projects on Mochiokuri brackets, and these are carved with kurikata, curved moldings cut into the profile of the wood. On an otherwise strictly practical building, this is the one place where someone reached for ornament.

Windows are scarcer still: a single opening on the west side of the upper floor. The interior walls are lined with boards to protect the contents from damp and from dust shed by the clay.

Visiting

The Kaname Family Residence Kanenoto Storehouse is part of a private home and is closed to the public. It stands inside the walls northeast of the main house, and its doorway cannot be seen from outside. No viewing events were announced as of September 25, 2026.

An exterior photograph appears in the Agency for Cultural Affairs database.