Nakayama Family Residence North Two-Story Storehouse

What Is the Nakayama Family Residence North Two-Story Storehouse?

The Nakayama Family Residence North Two-Story Storehouse (中山家住宅北二階蔵, Nakayama-ke Jūtaku Kita-nikaigura) is a late Edo-period two-story storehouse attached to the north side of the main house kitchen on the Nakayama estate in Bessho, Matsubara City, Osaka Prefecture, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on March 2, 2004.

At 5 and a half bays by 2, with a building area of 49 square meters, it is the largest storehouse on the estate. The rice storehouse and the pottery storehouse continue in a line to the north, and the small sleeping quarters used by the household's workers leans against its east side.

A Storehouse That Is Also Part of the House

The Nakayama Family Residence North Two-Story Storehouse works both as a freestanding store and as an extension of the main house. The southern 1 and a half bays of the ground floor form an inner storehouse opening directly onto the kitchen. When the Agency for Cultural Affairs describes the main house as having an inner storehouse to the north, this is the space it means.

Combining an inner store reached from the kitchen with a larger store entered from outside shows how closely daily cooking and household provisions were tied together.

Details Worth Knowing

Between the doorway in the middle of the west side and the kitchen runs an open veranda under a tiled canopy, so the walk from kitchen to storehouse stayed dry in the rain.

The walls are white shikkui plaster, with vertical boarding on the lower walls and across the whole north gable, probably to shield the plaster from the weather.

The roof is a detached gable of hongawarabuki tiles set over the plastered body, framed with sloping rafters rising to a heavy ridge beam: the same system as the two-story storehouse by the front gate, so the estate has matching two-story stores at its south and north.

Can You See the North Two-Story Storehouse?

The Nakayama Family Residence North Two-Story Storehouse stands inside the estate behind the main house and cannot be seen from outside. The residence is a private home and is closed to visitors; the Nakayama Family Residence page explains what can be seen from the street.