Aoki Family Residence Barn

What Is the Aoki Family Residence Barn?

The Aoki Family Residence Barn (青木家住宅納屋, Aokike Jūtaku Naya) is a single-storey timber barn built in 1915 in Mima-cho, Mima City, Tokushima Prefecture, and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property of Japan in 1998. It stands between the main house and the warehouse.

It has a Kirizuma-zukuri gabled roof laid in Sangawara-buki pantiles and a building area of 40 square metres. The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes two earth-floored Doma barn rooms, one on each side, with a toilet in the middle: a small, plain building laid out in a long line.

Why the Aoki Family Residence Barn Was Registered

The Aoki Family Residence Barn was registered on 9 October 1998 as number 36-0014, under the criterion for structures that contribute to the historic landscape of the country.

The Agency's case rests on how it matches its surroundings. Small and simple as it is, the Aoki Family Residence Barn has walls finished in grey nezumi plaster with boarding at the base, the same treatment as the main house, and the Agency notes that it blends well into the layout of the estate.

Nezumi-shikkui, literally mouse plaster, is lime Shikkui darkened with soot or ash to a soft grey, quieter than ordinary white plaster. The main house of the Aoki Family Residence is finished the same way, a feature both the Agency and Mima City point out. Giving a working shed the same walls pulls the centre of the estate into one colour scheme.

What to Look For at the Aoki Family Residence Barn: A Small Building for Work and Daily Needs

The plan of the Aoki Family Residence Barn is simple: a toilet in the centre, an earth-floored barn room on either side. Floors for tools and equipment and a toilet, gathered under one roof: the chores done outside the main house and some of its everyday needs were brought together here.

The walls are grey plaster above and timber Koshiita boarding below. The boarding is practical, protecting the lower wall where it takes the most wear and dirt. Notice how the junction of grey plaster and boards repeats exactly the rhythm of the main house.

The gabled pantile roof is much lower and plainer than the great Irimoya-zukuri roof of the main house. Set just west of it, the Aoki Family Residence Barn competes neither in height nor in form, and seen together the two make the order of main building and service building very clear.

Seeing the Aoki Family Residence Barn

Because the Aoki Family Residence Barn stands inside the estate, between the main house and the warehouse, it is hard to see properly from outside the walls. To get a good look you need to be inside the grounds, during an event or a booking. No opening of the interior has been announced (checked 1 October 2026).

Once inside, compare the walls of the main house and the Aoki Family Residence Barn. The grey plaster covers very different areas on a two-storey house and a single-storey barn, yet colour and boarding make them read as a pair.