Okamoto Family Residence North Storehouse

What Is the Okamoto Family Residence North Storehouse?

The Okamoto Family Residence North Storehouse (岡本家住宅北蔵, Okamoto-ke Jūtaku Kitagura) is a late-Edo-period storehouse in Kitamachi, Kaizuka City, Osaka Prefecture, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on March 18, 2003.

It is the easternmost of the three storehouses that line the north side of the Okamoto soy brewers' property. The Middle Storehouse stands to its west, and on its east side it joins the Zashiki, the family's detached reception building.

The North Storehouse is a two-storey Dozo-zukuri building, 6 ken by 2 ken in plan, with a building area of 99 m². That makes it long and narrow compared with its 2 ken by 3 ken neighbors, and the largest of the three. Its roof is slate today.

One Long Room with Two Doors

What sets the Okamoto Family Residence North Storehouse apart is that its length is not divided. The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes it as a two-storey building 6 ken long whose interior is a single room.

It has doorways on two faces, one on the south and one on the north. The sources consulted for this article do not say how the family used the two openings.

The other distinctive point is the link on its east side to the Zashiki. Of the three storehouses, the North Storehouse is the only one the Agency describes as connected to another building. As with its neighbors, the Agency says it was not used for brewing but served as a family store for tools and household goods.

Why the North Storehouse Was Registered

The Okamoto North Storehouse was registered under the criterion of contributing to the historic landscape of the country.

Along with the Middle Storehouse, it lost its traditional round-and-flat clay tiles after an earthquake, when the roof had to be replaced with artificial slate. For a historic building that is a real change. Even so, the Agency concluded that the North Storehouse deserves recognition as a component of the whole property.

In other words, the case for the Okamoto Family Residence North Storehouse rests less on the building in isolation than on its place in the sequence that runs from the main house through the New, Middle and North Storehouses to the Zashiki. It closes the eastern end of the storehouse row and connects onward to the reception building.

Visiting the Okamoto Family Residence North Storehouse

The Okamoto Family Residence North Storehouse is privately owned, and its interior is not open. The single room, the two doorways and the connection to the Zashiki cannot be checked from the street.

It stands at the eastern end of the row, two buildings beyond the New Storehouse on the street, so what you can see depends on where you stand. Look only from public roads, do not enter the property, and limit photographs to exterior views from the street. Directions are on the Okamoto Family Residence page.