Yamanouchi Family Residence Barn

About the Yamanouchi Family Residence Barn

The Yamanouchi Family Residence Barn (山内家住宅納屋, Yamanouchi-ke Jūtaku Naya) is a small storage shed built around 1931 in Sakaemachi, Hofu City, Yamaguchi Prefecture, and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property of Japan on April 25, 2014. It stands on the north side of the Yamanouchi Family Residence, toward the east, joined at its west end to the maidservants' quarters. At 7.6 square metres, it is the smallest of the estate's six registered structures.

The shed is a single-storey timber building with a gabled (Kirizuma-zukuri) tiled roof, 4 and a half bays (Ken) long and only half a bay deep. The eastern 1 bay is an outdoor toilet; the rest is storage. The Yamanouchi Family Residence Barn was back-of-house equipment, pure and simple.

Why It Was Registered

The Yamanouchi Family Residence Barn was registered as No. 35-0091 under the criterion for structures that contribute to the historic landscape. The Agency for Cultural Affairs calls it one of the elements that enclose the estate.

The reason is straightforward. Its outer walls are clad in vertical boards and, together with the maidservants' quarters, they double as the boundary wall on the north side. A building put up to hold tools and household goods also serves as part of the perimeter. Seen from the road, the Yamanouchi Family Residence Barn is one more panel in the board wall that continues from the maids' building.

What to Look For

With only half a bay of depth, the space is worked hard. The storage is arranged in units 1 bay wide and half a bay deep, reached through sliding doors on the south side. Those doors face into the grounds, and there are no openings on the street side.

The easternmost bay is the outdoor toilet, a privy set apart from the main house and tucked under the same roof as the storage.

Plain and unadorned as it is, the barn completes the north boundary. Brick wall, maids' building, barn: the line runs unbroken, and the estate is closed on its street side.

Visiting

The Yamanouchi Family Residence Barn is part of a private home and is not open (checked September 26, 2026).

From the north street you can see its board-clad back wall. The sliding doors are on the south side, inside the grounds. Because the wall stands right at the roadside, view it from across the street.