Yamada Family Residence Storehouse

What the Storehouse Is

The Yamada Family Residence Storehouse (山田家住宅土蔵, Yamada-ke Jūtaku Dozō) is a 1794 storehouse behind the main house on the Yamada estate in Shinge, Sennan City, Osaka Prefecture, registered in 2002 as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property. It is the oldest building on the estate.

It is a two-storey Dozo-zukuri building with thick plastered walls and a roof of hongawarabuki tiles, about 5.9 meters by 4.6 meters, with a building area of 27 square meters. The entrance is on a long side, parallel to the ridge, and a small eave shelters the center of the east front.

The roof is an Okiyane, built as a separate frame and set on top of the plastered body with a gap between the two.

The Inner Storehouse

The Yamada Family Residence Storehouse was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape. The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes it as the counterpart of the rice storehouse in the forecourt. Where the granary stands near the outside of the grounds, this one sits tucked away north of the main house, and it is thought to have held the family's own possessions.

Most of the estate took its present shape late in the Edo period, with the rice storehouse in 1854 and the main house in 1863. This storehouse is 60 to 70 years older, so it was already standing on this spot before the rest of the compound settled into the form seen today.

What to Look For

The detached roof leaves a layer of air between the plaster walls and the tiles. Summer heat on the tiles is slow to reach the walls. Osaka Cultural Properties Navi describes it as an insulating design. Look up under the eaves and you can see that walls and roof are separate structures.

The door sits under the eave at the center of the east front. At 5.9 meters by 4.6 meters, the footprint is nearly square, and with two storeys on top the building reads as a compact, upright block, quite unlike the long, low rice storehouse.

Visiting the Storehouse

Published guidance does not say whether the interior of the Yamada Family Residence Storehouse is shown. Its exterior can be seen on public open days by walking round to the north side of the estate.

View the east front from beside the main house, then follow the earthen wall that, according to national records, runs west from the storehouse at a right angle. Directions and opening days are covered on the Yamada Family Residence page.