Yurinso Second Storehouse

What Is the Yurinso Second Storehouse?

The Yurinso Second Storehouse (有隣荘二番蔵, Yūrinsō Nibangura) is a two-story fireproof earthen storehouse built around 1923 behind the main house of the Yurinso estate in Kuniyasu, Tottori City, Tottori Prefecture, and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property of Japan in 2013.

Three storehouses stand in a row behind the main house, each with its ridge running east to west, and this is the easternmost. It measures 6.1 m by 4.1 m, with a building area of 35 square meters. The Nishio family used it to keep household equipment.

Why the Yurinso Second Storehouse Was Registered

The Yurinso Second Storehouse was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property, number 31-0177, with the main house, gatehouse and six other structures, for contributing to the historic landscape of the country. Its number is the first of the three storehouses.

Tottori Prefecture's report points to the line of storehouses at the back of the lot, with their red tiles and namako walls, as part of what makes the estate whole. If the formal rooms and garden are the face Yurinso shows its guests, the row that includes the Yurinso Second Storehouse is the working side that kept a large headman's household running.

What to Look for at the Yurinso Second Storehouse

One lean-to for three buildings

The Yurinso Second Storehouse has a Kirizuma-zukuri gable roof of Sangawara-buki tiles, with a lean-to roof, a Geya, along its south side. That lean-to does not stop at this building: it runs on unbroken across the Third and then the Fourth Storehouse to the west. The result is a sheltered walkway in front of all three doors, so goods could be carried from one store to the next without getting wet. Standing at the Second Storehouse, you are at the east end where the shared roof begins.

Boards below, tilework above

The walls are plastered with Shikkui and then covered with vertical boards to protect the plaster. On the front, the wall above the lean-to roof is faced instead with Namako-kabe, square tiles set in raised white joints. Timber below and a black-and-white lattice above, on a single wall: that change of finish is what to notice on the Yurinso Second Storehouse.

A store for equipment

The Agency for Cultural Affairs records that this building served as a dōgugura, a store for household equipment, which in a house of this standing would likely have meant tableware and furnishings for receiving guests and for seasonal events. The three storehouses divided their contents: equipment here, clothing in the Third, household goods in the Fourth.

Visiting the Yurinso Second Storehouse

The Yurinso Second Storehouse stands behind the main house, on the opposite side from the dining rooms and the main garden. There is no notice of the interior being open, or of tours that include the storehouses (checked October 2, 2026). If you book a guided option such as the Tea Time Plan, ask whether the exterior can be seen.

No photography rule is published. Directions and booking conditions are on the Yurinso page.