Sugiura Family Residence Storehouse

What Is the Sugiura Family Residence Storehouse?

The Sugiura Family Residence Storehouse (杉浦家住宅土蔵, Sugiura-ke Jūtaku Dozō) is a mid-Meiji period (1883 to 1897) 2-storey earthen-walled storehouse on the estate of a family of doctors in Saijo Shinden, Showa Town, Yamanashi Prefecture, and was entered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on August 13, 2012. It stretches east to west along the north edge of the plot, with the barn next to it on the west.

The main block measures 10.9 meters by 3.6 meters, a long, narrow plan built in Dozo-zukuri fashion under a gable roof (Kirizuma-zukuri) of pantiles. With the lean-to along its south side, the building area comes to 61 square meters.

Why It Was Registered

The Sugiura Family Residence Storehouse was registered for contributing to the historic landscape of the country. The Agency for Cultural Affairs notes that it helps give the plot the solid presence of a former landowner's estate. The Sugiura family is remembered for medicine, but the row of storehouse and barn along the north side shows its other face as a landholding household.

Where the yashikigura is joined to the main house and effectively part of it, this storehouse stands on its own and was built for storage. Running east to west along the north edge, it and the barn to its west frame the back of the estate with buildings. In the same mid-Meiji years, then, the family built one storehouse for the house and another for the edge of the property, each with its own job.

What to Look For

A 10.9-Meter Wall

Begin on the south side and take in the length. The storehouse is 10.9 meters long but only 3.6 meters deep, roughly 3 times as long as it is wide. Because the thick earthen walls run on so far, from the garden the building reads almost as a single wall rising along the north side of the estate.

The South Lean-To and Doorway

A lean-to (Geya) one bay deep, about 1.8 meters, runs along the south face, and the doorway opens beneath it, where the roof shields the spot where goods were carried in and out. The main block works out at about 39 square meters (10.9 meters by 3.6 meters), so most of the difference from the 61-square-meter building area is taken up by this lean-to.

An Interior Split in Two

Inside, a staircase and a closet set toward the east end divide the space into east and west rooms, so the long storehouse was partitioned rather than used as one hall. Today the ground floor of the Sugiura Family Residence Storehouse serves as a gallery, and the upper floor displays objects used by the Sugiura household.

Visiting the Storehouse

The Sugiura Family Residence Storehouse is on the visitor route that leads from the clinic building through the garden to the back of the estate, and you can go inside to see both the ground-floor gallery and the upstairs display (according to Yamanashi's tourism site).

For the exterior, the south side of the garden is best, since from there you can see how it lines up with the barn along the north edge. Before stepping through the doorway, look at the depth of the earthen walls from under the lean-to. Ask at reception whether the displays may be photographed (checked September 27, 2026).