Ueda Residence Rice and Middle Storehouses: Edo-Era Kura by the River
Behind the main house of the Ueda family, on the side facing the Kinokawa River in Hashimoto, Wakayama, stand two thick-walled storehouses of the late Edo period. Registered together as a single unit, the kome-gura (rice storehouse) and naka-gura (middle storehouse) are the oldest surviving buildings on this former headman's estate, put up between roughly 1830 and 1868. They are also, by a quirk of timing, among the most recently protected: while the house and parlour were registered in 2022, the storehouses followed in early 2023.
These are dozo, the earthen-walled fireproof storehouses that guarded a rural household's rice, valuables and tools. What makes the pair unusual is how they were joined. The two kura were set with a narrow gap between them, and then linked across the front by a shared eave and a continuous second-storey wall, so that two separate boxes read as one building from outside.
Why They Are Registered
The storehouses were entered on the national register of Tangible Cultural Properties on 27 February 2023, under registration number 30-0333. The listing criterion was their contribution to the historic landscape of the country, and the reasoning is easy to see on the ground. Standing on the river side of the estate, the pair completes the group formed by the main house and the detached parlour, and together they hold the line of an old riverbank scene.
Registration is Japan's lighter form of protection, aimed at buildings usually more than fifty years old that help shape a historic setting. For the Ueda estate it means the working fabric of a headman's household, its store of rice and goods, survives alongside the rooms where the family lived and received guests.
What to Look For
The roof is the first lesson in kura construction. Each storehouse carries an oki-yane, a separate gabled roof of pantiles set above the plastered shell with an air gap between the two. The gap keeps rain and heat off the earthen walls, the real fireproof structure beneath. The eaves are plastered closed, a technique called nuri-kome that leaves no exposed timber for a fire to catch.
Look closely at the finishes and the older craft shows through. The walls stop at a middle coat of plaster rather than a polished white final coat, and the sides and rear are clad in hishigi-dake, flattened split bamboo. Inside the structure, the horizontal members are left as round logs, and the roof is sheathed with split bamboo rather than sawn boards. These are the economical, durable methods of a farming household, not the show finishes of a townhouse.
Finally, turn to the river side. Here the builders arranged the windows in a balanced, symmetrical composition, giving the working storehouses a composed face toward the water. It is a small touch of design on buildings whose job was storage, and it ties them into the ordered look of the whole estate.
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Q&A
- How old are the storehouses?
- They date to the late Edo period, roughly 1830 to 1868, which makes them the oldest buildings on the Ueda estate, older than both the parlour and the main house.
- What is a dozo?
- A storehouse with thick earthen walls, built to resist fire and to keep contents cool and dry. Rice, valuables and household goods were kept in them.
- Why do the storehouses have two roofs?
- The tiled oki-yane is a separate roof set above the earthen shell with a gap between them. It shields the fireproof walls from rain and heat while letting them breathe.
- Why were they registered later than the main house?
- The house and detached parlour were registered in June 2022; the storehouses followed in February 2023 as a further step in protecting the estate as a whole.
- Are the storehouses open to visitors?
- They stand on private property and are not generally open. The riverside group can be viewed from nearby public ground; check with Hashimoto City before visiting.
Basic Information
| Name | Ueda Residence Rice Storehouse and Middle Storehouse (Ueda-ke Jutaku Kome-gura oyobi Naka-gura) |
|---|---|
| Location | 36 Arase, Ueda, Hashimoto City, Wakayama Prefecture |
| Category | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Building) |
| Registered | 27 February 2023; registration no. 30-0333 |
| Quantity | 1 unit (two joined storehouses) |
| Date | Late Edo period (c.1830–1868) |
| Structure | Earthen-walled storehouse, two storeys, tiled roof; building area approx. 51 sq m |
| Access | Private property; not generally open. Confirm with Hashimoto City before visiting. |
References
- Cultural Heritage Online — Ueda Residence Rice and Middle Storehouses
- https://online.bunka.go.jp/heritages/detail/589166
- National Cultural Properties Database, Agency for Cultural Affairs
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00014522
- Cultural Properties of Wakayama — Ueda Residence
- https://wakayama-bunkazai.jp/bunkazai/bunkazai-spot-1000/
- Wakayama Broadcasting News — report on the 2023 registration recommendation
- https://news.wbs.co.jp/178826
Last verified: 2026.07.06