This building is called the Nunogura, or the Cloth Storage. As you can guess, this is where they carefully store their clothes, especially the ramie fabric made in Nara.

Ramie is something that has been used in Japan since the Jomon Period (14,000 - 300 BCE).

Before cotton became widely spread, ramie fabric was what supported daily life.

They grew it in the fields and then extracted fibers from the stalks. Then they would split them very thin and then twirl them into threads.
Then they would turn them into fabric.

There is a lot of work involved in turning a plant into cloth.

The final product is carefully preserved in the Nunogura.

On special occasions, they also send the cloth to different places.

The cloth from Nara Zarashi has also been delivered to Ise Jingu (Ise Shrine). There’s a letter from the eleventh head of the Nakagawa family at Ise Jingu.

“The delivery will be late. Rats have damaged the fabric.”

This is a story spanning 300 years. The rats that damaged the fabric that night may have been somewhere in this Nunogura.