Nakasuji Family Residence West Storehouse

What the Nakasuji Family Residence West Storehouse Is

The Nakasuji Family Residence West Storehouse (中筋家住宅西蔵, Nakasuji-ke Jūtaku Nishi-gura) is a Dozo-zukuri earthen-walled 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 used to store household equipment.

It is single-storey, with a Kirizuma-zukuri gabled roof and its entrance on the long side, in the Hirairi manner, and the roof is of the okiyane type. The building area is 30 square metres. It stands against the west end of the detached parlor and east storehouse, facing north onto the lane that turns west off the prefectural road.

An okiyane is a separately framed timber roof set on top of the plastered earthen body of a storehouse. The gap between body and roof means that if the roof burns, the store beneath has a better chance of surviving, and in summer the gap is said to help heat escape. It was a common arrangement for earthen storehouses.

Why It Was Registered

The Nakasuji Family Residence West Storehouse was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape. The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes it as a plain storehouse, but notes that its boarded base continues the design of the detached parlor and east storehouse next door, and that it was built with an eye to the streetscape.

A store for tools and equipment could have been left bare. Instead its base was finished to match its neighbour, so the north side of the estate reads as one composed front along the lane. What earned it registration is less the building on its own than its place in the row.

What to Look For

View the Nakasuji Family Residence West Storehouse from the lane together with the detached parlor and east storehouse to its east. The boarded base runs across both buildings, so that a building with tatami rooms and a plain storehouse read as a single wall.

Notice also that the gable ends, the triangular walls, face east and west, while the long side faces the lane. Turned this way, a modest 30-square-metre store extends the north range westward.

Visiting

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

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

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