Yagi Family Residential Storehouse

Yagi House Storehouse: Ten Square Metres That Record a Country Preparing for War

The storehouse on the Yagi property in Neyagawa covers ten square metres. That is smaller than a modest bedroom. It holds no treasures and it is not the building anyone comes to see. Yet the national register lists it in its own right, and the reason has less to do with 1930, when it was built, than with 1941, when it was rebuilt.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs registered it as a Tangible Cultural Property on 7 August 2023, registration number 27-0886, on the same day as the main house, the servants' quarters, and the gate and fence of the same estate. The record describes a single-storey structure in dozo earthen-wall construction, gable roof laid with pantiles and entered from the long side, roofed in tile, building area ten square metres.

Originally one building with the servants' quarters

When the estate was completed in 1930 to designs by the architect Fujii Koji, this space and the adjoining servants' quarters formed a single structure. Both were built in shinkabe construction, the method in which the timber posts remain exposed on the wall surface. It is the ordinary domestic technique of the period, and for a small outbuilding on a merchant's estate it was an unremarkable choice.

Then in 1941 the storehouse half was rebuilt as a fire-resistant structure. Japan entered the Pacific War in December of that year. The thick earthen walls of dozo construction had long been used against fire spreading between neighbouring buildings; from the late 1930s, households across the country were also being urged to prepare against incendiary attack. Whatever the Yagi family's precise reasoning, the date and the change of method are recorded together in the national database, and the description states plainly that the conversion was made in anticipation of war.

The servants' quarters were left in timber. So the two halves of what had been one building now differ in construction, and the seam between them is legible on site.

Why a Small Outbuilding Was Registered

Registration as a Tangible Cultural Property is a different instrument from designation as a National Treasure or Important Cultural Property. The registration system dates from a 1996 amendment to the Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties and was built to be light: owners give notice of changes rather than seeking permission, so buildings can stay in use and be repaired. It exists because the modern-era building stock of Japan was disappearing faster than it could be assessed, and much of that stock is domestic, small and unspectacular.

The four registered elements at the Yagi property were assessed under two different criteria. The main house met criterion (2), covering works that serve as a model of design. The storehouse, the servants' quarters, and the gate with its fence met criterion (1), covering works that contribute to the historic landscape of the country. Criterion (1) is not a consolation prize; it recognises that an estate is understood through its whole fabric, and that a 1930s residential plot without its outbuildings tells only part of its own story.

The national record is specific about what makes this storehouse worth keeping. It notes the iron door hung at the entrance, the boat-bottom ceiling, and the single window in the rear wall. It then singles out the paired diagonal struts used to brace the frame, observing that the reinforcement is unusually thorough for a building of this size, and that this excess of care reflects the conditions of the war years.

That is the point. The building is over-engineered relative to its function, and the over-engineering is the historical evidence. Municipal material issued at the time of registration made the same observation in slightly different words, noting the double-leaf iron doors and calling the structure solidly made for something so small.

Reading the Building

Approach from the north road and the storehouse sits toward the rear of the plot, part of the boundary wall of buildings that defines the estate's edge. The gable end faces along the run, and entry is from the long side, an arrangement called hirairi. The roof carries pantiles, the standard Japanese roofing tile with its alternating wave profile.

The exterior surface is the first thing to read. Dozo construction builds up thick layers of earth and plaster over a bamboo lattice armature until the timber frame disappears entirely beneath a smooth, fire-resistant skin. Set this against the servants' quarters beside it, where the posts show on the wall face and vertical boarding fills the panels between them. Two small buildings, once continuous, now stating two different intentions.

At the entrance, the iron door. Records describe it as hung at the opening and, in the municipal account, as opening in two leaves. Iron for domestic doors was not a casual purchase in 1941; Japan was already directing metal toward military production, and using it here indicates a deliberate decision.

Inside, if a guide opens it, the ceiling is funazoko, a boat-bottom profile in which the surface rises from the walls toward a flat central panel, giving a small space more air than a flat ceiling would. A single window pierces the rear wall. And the bracing: paired diagonal struts set against the frame, more of them, and more carefully fitted, than ten square metres would normally require.

Visiting

The Yagi property is a private residence. Guided visits are arranged by a volunteer group, the Yagitei Club, which has operated public openings since 2015 in cooperation with Neyagawa City and Setsunan University.

Under the terms the club has published, general visits run once a month on the second Sunday at 10:00 and 13:00, ten people per session, fifty minutes with a guide. Applications go through the club's web form between the 10th and 20th of the previous month and are drawn by lot if oversubscribed. Admission is 1,000 yen for adults and 500 yen for students from junior high school upwards, cash on the day; children in the third year of primary school or below cannot be admitted. August and the New Year period are closed. Groups of ten or more are taken on the third Wednesday or Saturday, with applications opening three months ahead. Bookings are by email only. Overseas visitors are welcomed and an English leaflet is available on request.

Tours centre on the main house, and the outbuildings are generally seen from outside. If the storehouse interests you specifically, say so when you apply. Confirm current arrangements before travelling, since these terms have been revised before.