Okuno Family Residence Rice Storehouse

The largest storehouse, built in 1910

Okuno Family Residence Rice Storehouse (奥野家住宅米蔵, Okuno-ke Jūtaku Komegura) is a storehouse built in 1910 in Nakasakurazuka, Toyonaka, Osaka Prefecture, and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property of Japan on July 8, 2008, under number 27-0495.

It stands in the northwest corner of the plot: a two-storey Dozo-zukuri building 12 meters by 5.3 meters, with a building area of 64 square meters, the biggest of the five storehouses on the property.

Raising the "northwest store"

The date of the Okuno Family Residence Rice Storehouse comes from a family account book. According to the city, it records the raising of the ridge of the "Inuigura" in 1910. Inui is the old directional name for northwest, which matches the agency's description of the building's position.

The city's own description places the rice storehouse in the northeast of the plot. Given both the name and the agency's account, this site treats the northwest corner as correct. It is also the youngest of the storehouses.

A plaster karahafu and two round windows

The gabled Kirizuma-zukuri roof of the Okuno Family Residence Rice Storehouse was originally laid with Hongawarabuki tiles and is now covered with temporary sheet metal. The building stands on a laid-stone base, and part of its outer wall is sheathed in vertical boards.

Its most striking feature is the upper gable facing the street, where a Shikkui plaster karahafu, a bargeboard that swells up in the middle and flicks out at the ends, frames a pair of round windows. Karahafu gables mark the grandest entrances of temples, shrines and castles; modelling one in plaster on a storehouse shows off both a late-Meiji plasterer's skill and the owner's ambition. The agency singles it out as what gives the building its distinctive look.

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

A concert hall

Today the Okuno Family Residence Rice Storehouse serves as the hall of Sakura no Shōbei. An opening concert was held in October 2022, and the official site likens the space, with its high ceiling and thick walls, to a big sound box. Chamber music, jazz and rakugo have followed.

Those thick clay walls were built to keep fire and damp away from the rice. Now they keep street noise out and soften the sound within.

Visiting

You can go inside the Okuno Family Residence Rice Storehouse when an event is held there. Several concerts were scheduled for October through December 2026, with tickets from about 3,000 to 4,500 yen; check the official site for dates and booking. The gable with the karahafu and round windows faces the street and can be seen from outside on any day. Directions are on the Okuno Family Residence (Toyonaka) page.