Nakayama Family Residence Nanban Storehouse

What Is the Nakayama Family Residence Nanban Storehouse?

The Nakayama Family Residence Nanban Storehouse (中山家住宅南蛮蔵, Nakayama-ke Jūtaku Nanbangura) is a late Edo-period storehouse on the Nakayama estate in Bessho, Matsubara City, Osaka Prefecture, where imported goods such as sugar were kept; it was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on March 2, 2004.

It stands on the east side of the estate, joined to the east end of the main house, with the guest lodge continuing to the south. It is a single-story dozo-zukuri storehouse, 2 and a half bays by 2, with a building area of 22 square meters and a gabled roof of hongawarabuki tiles.

A Storehouse for Foreign Goods

Nanban, literally southern barbarians, was the word first used in Japan for the Portuguese and Spanish traders who arrived from the south, and later for exotic imports in general. According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs, the Nakayama Family Residence Nanban Storehouse held sugar and other goods from abroad.

The Nakayama estate gave each kind of stock its own storehouse: rice, tools, charcoal and cotton, ceramics. That one of them was set aside for imported luxuries is concrete evidence of how far the trade reach of a Kawachi farming family extended.

Details Worth Knowing

The interest here is overhead. Two beams of naturally curved timber span the storehouse; short posts stand on them, locked together by horizontal tie pieces, and carry the purlins and the heavy ridge beam. It is a country carpenter's way of turning a crooked tree into strength.

The door opens on the west side, facing into the estate, under a small canopy of the same heavy tiles. The walls are shikkui plaster above a skirt of vertical boards.

Can You See the Nanban Storehouse?

The Nakayama Family Residence Nanban Storehouse is attached to the main house and faces inward, so it cannot be made out from outside. The estate is a private home and is closed to visitors; the Nakayama Family Residence page explains what can be seen from the street.