Yamamoto Family Residence Inner Storehouse 2

The Second Inner Storehouse

The Yamamoto Family Residence Inner Storehouse 2 (山本家住宅内蔵二, Yamamoto-ke Jūtaku Uchigura Ni) is an earthen storehouse of the middle Taishō period (1912 to 1925) at the Yamamoto family estate in Sakai, Kainan City, Wakayama Prefecture, listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on October 2, 2007. It is the eastern of the estate's two inner storehouses.

According to the national database, the Yamamoto Family Residence Inner Storehouse 2 stands east of inner storehouse 1, with its ridge turned the other way. North of it, across a lane, lies the plot of the retirement house, so this storehouse sits between the main estate and that separate plot.

East-West Ridge, Pan-Tiled Roof

It is a two-storey dozo storehouse with a tiled roof and a building area of 28 square meters, three and a half bays long and two bays deep, its ridge running east to west under a gabled roof of pan tiles. A sheet-iron canopy on the south side shelters the doorway.

Like its neighbor, it rests on a high stone base of granite. The walls are white plaster with a skirt of vertical boards. On the gable ends the purlins are expressed in the plaster, so the lines of the roof timbers show on the white wall. The roof is framed with inclined beams.

Why It Was Registered

The Yamamoto Family Residence Inner Storehouse 2 was registered on October 2, 2007 (registration no. 30-0125) under the criterion of contributing to the historic landscape of the nation.

It is almost the same size as inner storehouse 1 and sits on the same kind of stone base, but it turns its ridge east to west, uses pan tiles, and opens its door to the south. Set at right angles, the two storehouses give depth to the estate behind the main house. Wakayama Prefecture values how completely the setting of this leading merchant house survives, and inner storehouse 2 is one of the buildings that hold up the back of that setting.

What to Look For

The purlin lines on the gable are the detail to find: on the white triangle of plaster, the positions of the roof timbers stand out as a pattern of lines. On the south side, the iron canopy throws a shadow over the doorway between the white wall and the boarded skirt.

Seen next to inner storehouse 1, it shows how much orientation and roofing change the look of two storehouses built by the same household in the same era. The Wakayama architects' association also notes the Kaneichi mark on the walls and round tiles of the inner storehouses.

Seeing Inner Storehouse 2

The Yamamoto Family Residence Inner Storehouse 2 stands inside a private estate, and neither the interior nor the grounds are open. It may be visible from the lane toward the retirement house, but it has not been confirmed that the lane is public. Please look only from public roads. Directions are on the Yamamoto Family Residence page.