Tsutsui Family Residence Storehouse

What Is the Tsutsui Family Residence Storehouse?

The Tsutsui Family Residence Storehouse (筒井家住宅土蔵, Tsutsui-ke Jūtaku Dozō) is a household storehouse standing just north of the main house on the Tsutsui estate in Nakamozucho, Kita-ku, Sakai City, Osaka; dated by the national register to the late Edo period, it became a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on April 3, 2020.

It is a 2-storey timber building with thick earthen walls in the Dozo-zukuri manner and a roof of round and flat tiles (Hongawarabuki), covering 28 square meters. It faces south, with its door toward the east end of the south wall, and it connects to a wing projecting from the back of the main house, so the family could reach it without stepping outdoors.

Why It Was Registered: The Northern Edge of the Estate

The Tsutsui Family Residence Storehouse was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape. The Agency for Cultural Affairs notes that it forms the northern edge of the walled compound.

According to Sakai City, it is the only storehouse left on the property and gives a sense of the row of storehouses that once supported the land office. A plan of the house from 1883 shows two more storehouses and a barn on the west side of the site, all since lost. This one building now stands in for a yard that would have held grain, dues and the tools of the reclamation.

What to Look For: Four Plaster Bands and Board Skirting

The walls are finished in white lime plaster (Shikkui), and four stepped bands, called hachimaki, run beneath the eaves. These thickened bands help seal the top of the wall against fire and give the building a crisp upper edge. Lower down, the walls are skirted with vertical boards that shield the earth from rain and splash.

Inside, the floors are boarded and the walls lined with vertical planks. The roof uses sloping beams that rise from wall to ridge, with roof boards laid in a single run from ridge to eaves. White plaster outside and warm timber inside: the double skin typical of a Japanese storehouse survives intact.

A pan-tiled link (Sangawara-buki) with a double-pitched roof joins the storehouse to the main house. Seen together, the thatched house, the tiled link and the white Tsutsui Family Residence Storehouse make the most characteristic corner of the estate.

Visiting

The Tsutsui Family Residence Storehouse is part of a private home and is not open to the public. Please do not enter the grounds.

A photograph is available on the Agency for Cultural Affairs database, which dates the building to the late Edo period and enters 1751 to 1830 in its dates column. Access and visiting conditions are covered on the Tsutsui Family Residence page.