Tanaka Family Residence Tool Storehouse

The Tanaka Family Residence Tool Storehouse

The Tanaka Family Residence Tool Storehouse (田中家住宅道具蔵, Tanaka-ke Jūtaku Dōgugura) is a two-storey earthen-walled storehouse built in 1875 on the Tanaka compound in Yamanoue, Hirakata City, Osaka Prefecture, and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on November 2, 2018. It is the oldest of the six registered buildings.

It stands behind the main house on the north edge of the grounds, running east to west. The dozō has a floor area of 46 square metres under a gabled roof of hongawara tiles. Inside it is split into east and west rooms, with a door under a small roof at the east gable end and a second entrance on the south side of the west room.

A Big Storehouse on the Village Street

The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes the Tanaka Family Residence Tool Storehouse as a large storehouse that helps form the streetscape of a long-settled village. It was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape, and from the north it marks the edge of the compound just as the nagaya gate and annex do from the south.

The two rooms with separate doors were probably used for different kinds of equipment. As the name says, this was a store for tools, whether for farming, daily life or seasonal occasions.

Stone Footings and a Plastered Band

The walls rise from dressed-stone footings, plastered white with tall vertical boarding below, the same finish as the annex and rice storehouse on the south side.

Under the eaves runs a hachimaki, a thick moulded band of plaster that caps the tall two-storey walls and gives the building its solid, storehouse weight.

Access

Because the Agency says the Tool Storehouse helps shape the street scene, its exterior may be visible from the road on the north side. No official information on public opening could be found; the compound appears to be a private home, and the grounds cannot be entered.