Sugiura Family Residence Yashikigura

What Is the Sugiura Family Residence Yashikigura?

The Sugiura Family Residence Yashikigura (杉浦家住宅屋敷蔵, Sugiura-ke Jūtaku Yashiki-gura) is a mid-Meiji period (1883 to 1897) earthen-walled storehouse attached to the living quarters of a doctors' family home in Saijo Shinden, Showa Town, Yamanashi Prefecture, and was entered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on August 13, 2012. Yashikigura means "house storehouse": a kura that belongs to the dwelling rather than to the farmyard.

It stands just northwest of the main house, joined to it by a corridor. The building is 2 storeys high, built in Dozo-zukuri fashion with thick clay walls, roofed with a simple gable (Kirizuma-zukuri) in pantiles, and covers 42 square meters. Unlike the long storehouse that stands on its own at the north edge of the estate, this one is part of the house.

Why It Was Registered

The Sugiura Family Residence Yashikigura was registered for contributing to the historic landscape of the country. Earthen-walled storehouses were built to resist fire, and here one sits right beside the family home and can be reached from indoors. Folding the storehouse into the household's daily circulation is the key to its character.

What stands out in the Agency for Cultural Affairs description is the interior. Entering from the east, you pass through an anteroom into a main room of 10 tatami mats, with a closet and a stair enclosure along the south wall. A layout like this, with an anteroom leading to a sizeable matted room, is uncommon in a storehouse meant only for goods. Setting rooms close to those of a house inside the thick clay shell is what makes the Sugiura yashikigura distinctive.

What to Look For

Lean-Tos on Both Flanks

The storehouse itself is a 2-storey block under a gable roof, but lower pantiled lean-to roofs (Geya) are attached on both the east and west sides. From the front, the central gable is flanked by two roofs a step lower.

A Door That Opens onto a Corridor

The entrance is at the eastern end of the south wall, where the corridor from the main house connects. Notice that the storehouse door faces this indoor passage rather than the open yard. Family members could go in and out without stepping outside, a clear sign that the building was used as part of the house.

Its Place in the Estate

The Sugiura Family Residence Yashikigura sits northwest of the main house and closer to it than the storehouse and barn on the north edge. Walking the plot from north to south, you move from barn and storehouse, through the yashikigura, to the main house, in other words from working buildings toward living space. Keep that sequence in mind as you walk the garden.

Visiting the Yashikigura

We could find no specific notice from the museum or the town on whether the interior of the Sugiura Family Residence Yashikigura is open (checked September 27, 2026). The published visitor route covers the clinic building, the garden and the storehouse and barn at the back, and the main house to which the yashikigura is joined is closed for renovation.

The exterior can most likely be seen from the garden, northwest of the main house; Yamanashi's tourism site also shows a photograph of it. If you would like to see the 10-mat room inside or want to know whether photography is allowed, ask at reception or phone ahead.