Kimura Family Residence Main Storehouse

The Kimura Family Residence Main Storehouse

The Kimura Family Residence Main Storehouse (木村家住宅本蔵, Kimura-ke Jūtaku Hongura) is a two-storey Dozo-zukuri storehouse of the late Meiji era (1898 to 1912) on the estate of a Kawachi cotton merchant in Higashihonmachi, Yao City, Osaka Prefecture, listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 24 June 2021. It runs north to south along the western edge of the estate, southwest of the main house and next to the tea room.

At 5 bays by 2 bays under a gabled roof of round and flat tiles, with a building area of 39 square meters, it is the larger of the estate's two storehouses. The Agency for Cultural Affairs notes that this fairly large storehouse defines the western side of the site. It was listed for contributing to the historic landscape of the country.

From "new store" to "main store": two views of its date

The Agency for Cultural Affairs dates the Kimura Family Residence Main Storehouse to the late Meiji era. The registration survey published by Yao City reads it differently: a storehouse built in the late Edo period and repaired in late Meiji.

The survey's case rests on the family's plans. On the geomancy plan thought to date from 1842, a storehouse in this position is labeled shingura, the new store, while the storehouse beside the main house is the cotton store. The name suggests a building newer than the 1825 storehouse. By the measured plan of about 1905, the same building is called hongura, the main store.

The structure itself carries two periods. In the upper floor, the heavy ridge beam, an Ushibari, and the sloping beams it supports, Nobori-bari, are reused timbers from an earlier building, while the posts, purlins and rafters are new. Wire nails point to work in late Meiji. How much of the old frame was kept, a rebuild or a heavy repair, seems to be what separates the Agency's date from the survey's.

Walls, windows and a plaster fan

According to the Agency, the walls of the Main Storehouse are plastered in Shikkui up to the thickened band below the eaves, the Hachimaki, with vertical boarding around the base. A corridor attaches on the east, where the Tomae entrance is. Inside is one room on each floor, with a thick ridge beam carrying the sloping beams.

On the gable wall is a fan modeled in relief plaster, a Kote-e. Built up with a trowel, it adds a quiet touch of ornament to an otherwise plain white wall.

The survey adds six small windows with little roofs around the walls and a large sliding door in the middle of the east side. On the ground floor, square beams at each line of posts carry the floorboards, and a stair rises beside the entrance. A roofed plank bridge over the entrance leads to a sliding door in the west wall of the four-and-a-half-mat tea room.

Seeing the Kimura Family Residence Main Storehouse

The Main Storehouse is not open to the public and cannot be entered. Standing behind the main house and storehouse at the west edge of the estate, it is barely visible from the street to the north.

Yao City describes the Kimura family as holding a large archive on the Kawachi cotton trade, including the oldest known document of a Kawachi cotton merchant's business, and says the main storehouse holds papers on the family's trade and its contacts with scholars and artists. The city is preparing a project to restore and open the estate, so watch its announcements for any chance to see the building. Directions to the estate are on the Kimura Family Residence page.