Okuno Family Residence East Storehouse

A storehouse at the back of the homestead

Okuno Family Residence East Storehouse (奥野家住宅東蔵, Okuno-ke Jūtaku Higashigura) is a late-Edo storehouse of between 1830 and 1867 in Nakasakurazuka, Toyonaka, Osaka Prefecture, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property of Japan on July 8, 2008, under number 27-0496.

It stands on the northern edge of the plot, next to the rice storehouse on its east side: a two-storey Dozo-zukuri building 7.4 meters by 4.4 meters, with a building area of 40 square meters. It sits well away from the street front, and the agency describes it as giving the back of the homestead a quiet, settled character.

Moved in the late Meiji years

The Okuno Family Residence East Storehouse has not always stood here. The agency records a relocation in the late Meiji period, and according to the city it originally stood about a bay and a half east of the west storehouse. Since the west storehouse lines the street on the western edge, the east storehouse must once have stood toward the front of the homestead before being moved to the rear.

The city also notes that the oldest geomantic house plan kept by the family does not show this storehouse, and so dates it after the main house. The sequence, then: built in the late Edo years after the main house, moved in late Meiji.

A different wall finish

The Okuno Family Residence East Storehouse has a gabled Kirizuma-zukuri roof set over the clay body as an okiyane, laid in Sangawara-buki pantiles, with a pantile canopy on its south side.

What the agency singles out is the wall. Instead of a final coat of white plaster, it is finished at the nakanuri stage, the intermediate clay coat, with vertical boards around the base. Next to gleaming white plaster, the earthen coat has a softer colour and texture, and the agency notes that this sets it apart from the west, rice and new storehouses.

It was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape of the country.

What to look for

If you get the chance to see the Okuno Family Residence East Storehouse, look at the colour of its walls. Among white-plastered storehouses, its earthen finish gives it a character all its own.

Look too at how it pairs with its neighbour. The 1910 rice storehouse is the largest on the property, and the smaller east storehouse sits close beside it. That pairing of big and small along the north edge came about only because of the move.

Visiting

The Okuno Family Residence East Storehouse stands at the back of a private homestead and is not open inside. It cannot be seen from the street, and how far visitors may go within the grounds varies by Sakura no Shōbei event. If you want to see it, ask Sakura no Shōbei in advance. Directions are on the Okuno Family Residence (Toyonaka) page.