Kaname Family Residence Inner Storehouse

The Oldest Storehouse on the Estate

The Kaname Family Residence Inner Storehouse (要家住宅内蔵, Kaname-ke Jūtaku Uchigura) is a mid-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 Agency for Cultural Affairs identifies it as the oldest of the estate's storehouses.

It stands east of the Detached Shoin, with its south face joined to the kitchen wing of the main house. The building is a 2-storey Dozo-zukuri structure, clay walls over a timber frame, measuring 3 by 2 ken and covering 24 square metres, under a gabled roof of pantiles. "Inner" is the operative word: this is the storehouse set deepest in the compound, closest to the family's daily life.

Why It Was Listed

The Kaname Family Residence Inner Storehouse was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape. So were the estate's three other listed storehouses, the Kanenoto, the Michi and the Utensil Storehouse.

Among the four, the Inner Storehouse stands out first for its age. The others date from the later or final decades of the Edo period; this one goes back to the middle of it. It marks the first step in a process by which the family added storehouses one by one.

Its position tells a story too. A storehouse attached directly to the kitchen was almost certainly one opened and closed every day. Rather than standing with the later three in their cluster on the east side of the lot, it sits among the dwelling's core rooms, the Detached Shoin and the main house.

Inside the Frame

The roof structure is the thing to understand. The post at the center of each gable end is thicker than the others, and on these posts rests a jimune, a heavy beam laid along the ridge line. Sloping noboribari beams run from it down to the eaves, following the pitch of the roof. Compared with the more common Wagoya system of short posts standing on tie beams, this leaves the upper floor more open.

The inner walls are Shinkabe, finished so that posts and beams remain visible. Outside, thick clay seals the building against fire; inside, the timber skeleton stays in view.

There are very few windows: one each to east and west on the ground floor, and a single window facing east upstairs. In a fireproof storehouse every opening is a potential way in for flames, so they were kept to the minimum needed for ventilation.

Visiting

The Kaname Family Residence Inner Storehouse is part of a private home and is closed to the public. Set deep in the compound beside the kitchen wing, it cannot be seen from outside the walls. No viewing events were announced as of September 25, 2026.

An exterior photograph is available in the Agency for Cultural Affairs database. Please do not attempt to look over the walls.