Fujita Family Residence Storehouse

The Oldest Building on the Farm

The Fujita Family Residence Storehouse (藤田家住宅蔵, Fujita-ke Jūtaku Kura) is an earthen-walled storehouse built in 1895 in Shinkirai, Kitajima Town, Tokushima Prefecture, and was listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2016.

It stands west of the main house: a two-storey dozo-zukuri storehouse with a tiled roof and a building area of 23 square metres. The oldest of the five listed buildings, it had been guarding the family's goods for 30 years and more before the present main house was built.

The concrete wall that runs north from the gatehouse on the west side stops at this storehouse, so gatehouse, wall and storehouse together close off the western edge of the property.

Why It Was Registered

The storehouse received registration number 36-0151 in the 85th round of national registrations, dated 2016/11/29, under the criterion of contributing to the historic landscape.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs notes that it has the features typical of storehouses in a river-mouth district long troubled by floods. On the delta near the mouth of the Yoshino, a flood meant water in the yard. What makes the Fujita Family Residence Storehouse worth keeping is how plainly its form shows the measures taken to protect valuables on such ground.

What to Look For

A raised stone base

Start at ground level. The foundation stones are stacked high, lifting the floor well above the yard so that stored goods stay dry if the water rises. This is the flood-country feature the Agency highlights.

Boards below, plaster above

The lower walls are faced with shitami-itabari clapboard, and above that the walls are sealed in shikkui lime plaster right up to the eaves. Timber takes the splashes and mud near the ground; fire-resistant plaster wraps the rest. The line where one finish meets the other marks the change in what the wall has to resist.

A tightly framed store

Inside the earthen walls the posts are set close together. The roof is gabled with hongawarabuki tiles, each floor is a single room, and the door is in the south gable end, slightly right of centre: a compact, sturdy building designed entirely around keeping things safe.

Visiting

The Fujita Family Residence Storehouse is part of a private home and is not open to visitors; as of October 2026 we found no announcement of public access. Although it forms part of the western boundary, there is no official guidance on what can be seen from outside, so please stay off the property.

The raised base and plastered walls are clearly visible in photographs supplied by the Kitajima Town Board of Education in the Agency for Cultural Affairs database.