Sakurabayashi Family Residence Rice Storehouse and Tool Storehouse

What the Sakurabayashi Family Residence Rice Storehouse and Tool Storehouse Is

The Sakurabayashi Family Residence Rice Storehouse and Tool Storehouse (櫻林家住宅米蔵及び道具蔵, Sakurabayashi-ke Jūtaku Komegura oyobi Dōgugura) is an earthen storehouse from the later Meiji era in Miyaharacho, Kofu City, Yamanashi Prefecture, and was listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property of Japan on 7 August 2023 (registration no. 19-0170). It stands north of the inner reception wing on the homestead of the Sakurabayashi, a family of physicians since the Edo period.

Despite the double name, this is a single building: a rice store and a tool store placed side by side under one roof, west and east. The national database dates it to the later Meiji era, which it gives as between 1898 and 1912.

It is built in the dozo manner under a gabled (kirizuma) roof of sangawara tiles, set Hirairi with the ridge running east to west, and a lean-to Geya roof runs the full length of the south side. It is single-storey with a partial upper floor, and the building area is 74 square metres.

Why It Was Registered

The Sakurabayashi Family Residence Rice Storehouse and Tool Storehouse was listed for its contribution to the historic landscape. The national database describes it as the working storehouse that forms the northern side of the property.

The two storehouses attached to the reception wing held the household's valuables. This one held rice and tools, the things that kept the household and its land running. It is a reminder that a doctor's household in a village outside Kofu kept the same set of buildings as any substantial rural family, rice store included. Gate, reception rooms, valuables stores and rice store together complete the layout of an old rural family seat.

One discrepancy is worth recording. The period field in the national database reads Edo, while its date field says later Meiji and its Western-calendar field gives 1898 to 1912. The Council for Cultural Affairs also gives the later Meiji era, so this article follows that dating.

What to Look For

The walls are finished in white Shikkui lime plaster, with a base course of grey nezumi shikkui. On the north face there is a row of windows. Storehouse windows are usually few and small because of the fire risk, so a line of them here marks a building where ventilation and easy handling of stock mattered more than keeping valuables sealed away.

Inside, the ground floor is split into two board-floored rooms. The rice store on the west has no upper floor and rises open to the roof, one tall volume suited to stacking bales. The tool store on the east has a second floor for sorting equipment on two levels. The section of the building changes from one end to the other according to what it held, which is the most interesting thing about it.

The lean-to along the south side creates a sheltered work area in front of the storehouse doors. Seen from the south, the low roof of the lean-to runs in a single horizontal line along the foot of the Sakurabayashi Family Residence Rice Storehouse and Tool Storehouse.

Visiting the Rice and Tool Storehouse

The Sakurabayashi Family Residence Rice Storehouse and Tool Storehouse is part of a private home and is not open to the public. It stands toward the north of the property, so it is hard to see from outside, and the grounds are closed to visitors.

There is no published policy on photography. The location of the property is covered on the Sakurabayashi Family Residence page.