Nakasuji Family Residence Detached Parlor and East Storehouse

What the Nakasuji Family Residence Detached Parlor and East Storehouse Is

The Nakasuji Family Residence Detached Parlor and East Storehouse (中筋家住宅離れ座敷及び東蔵, Nakasuji-ke Jūtaku Hanare-zashiki oyobi Higashi-gura) is a single building combining a pair of detached reception rooms and a storehouse on the north side of the Nakasuji family estate in the Wasa district of Negi, Wakayama City, Wakayama Prefecture; it was built in the Taishō era (1912–1926) and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 11 December 1998. It is a single-storey timber building with a tiled roof and a building area of 62 square metres.

The estate sits at the corner where a prefectural road meets a lane turning off to the west. This building faces north onto that lane. The west end holds two 6-mat Zashiki tatami rooms; the east end is a storehouse for household furnishings, the trays, dishes and fittings brought out when guests were entertained.

At 62 square metres it is the second largest of the five registered buildings, after the main house. The west storehouse, also Taishō-era, stands next to it on the west.

Why It Was Registered

The Nakasuji Family Residence Detached Parlor and East Storehouse was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape. The Agency for Cultural Affairs calls it valuable as one of the principal elements of the extensive household compound.

A hanare-zashiki is a guest room or retirement room set apart from the main house, a quiet space at a slight remove from daily household life. Here the rooms are joined directly to a store for the things used in them, so that serving ware could be carried straight through from the store next door. Hospitality and its equipment share one roof.

When this building was added in the Taishō era, it gave the estate a finished edge on the north side to go with the mid-Meiji main house and the gatehouse range on the east. The west storehouse next door was given a matching exterior, and the two together form the north side of the compound.

What to Look For

View the Nakasuji Family Residence Detached Parlor and East Storehouse from the lane, together with the west storehouse. The official description of the west storehouse says its boarded base continues the design of this building, and the matching finish along the bottom of both walls is what ties the north side together.

Keep in mind, too, that one building houses two uses: rooms to the west, store to the east. Standing in the lane and working out where the rooms end and the store begins is a good way to picture how the north side of the estate was used.

Visiting

The building is part of a private home, and neither the interior nor the grounds are open (checked 26 September 2026). The north front facing the lane can be seen from the public road.

Please do not point a camera at the windows of the rooms or the storehouse door.

Directions to the estate and general visiting conditions are on the Nakasuji Family Residence page.