Former Hongo Residence Miso Storehouse: Mortar Cut to Look Like Stone, Taisho 10
The walls of this small building are not stone, though they were made to be read as stone. The exterior carries a mortar finish washed back while still green to expose the aggregate, with joints scored across it in a regular grid. The effect is masonry, at a fraction of masonry's cost and weight.
Underneath, the structure is a conventional two-storey dozo: thick earthen walls over a timber frame. It stands on the north side of the main house, on an east-west axis, and covers 66 square metres. Sheet iron roofing, as everywhere on this site.
It went up in Taisho 10 (1921) under the master carpenter Terashima Matsugoro, who would return seven years later to build the family's Western-style wing. Today it stands free, but it was originally joined to the kitchen of the main house. That connection explains its purpose. Miso, the fermented soybean paste that anchors the regional diet, was made and stored by the barrel in a household of this size, and it needed to be within reach of the cooks in every season.
The Roof That Sits On Top
Look at the roofline and you may notice that the roof appears to rest on the building rather than grow out of it. That impression is accurate. The building uses okiyane construction, in which a light timber roof is set over the earthen roof of the storehouse below, like a lid on a box.
The arrangement solves a real problem. An earthen roof is vulnerable to rain and to the freeze-thaw cycles of a snowy spring; covering it with a second roof keeps water off while the gap between the two allows air to move, drawing off the moisture that would otherwise rot the mud from within. Storehouses across snow country adopted the method, and it gives them their characteristic silhouette, a plain box with a hat.
Then look at the windows. Their brackets are cut with curved profiles rather than the plain squared corbels a purely functional building would use. A storehouse for bean paste did not require this. Someone decided it should have it anyway.
The Building and Its Garden
The registration criterion applied here differs from that used for the main house. Where the main house was registered as a model of design, the miso storehouse was entered on the register as a structure contributing to the historic landscape of the country. The distinction rewards attention: this building was recognised less for what it is in isolation than for what it does within a view.
That view is the garden on the north side of the main house. In Taisho 11 (1922), the year after the storehouse was finished, Nagaoka Yasuhei drew a coloured design for the Hongo family garden. Nagaoka is often described as the founder of modern Japanese landscape design, and he also worked on the Ikeda family garden elsewhere in Daisen City, now a nationally designated Place of Scenic Beauty. His drawing survives among the family papers.
The sequence is suggestive without being conclusive. A stone-faced storehouse appears at the north edge of the compound in 1921; a professional garden design for that same north garden is drawn in 1922. Whether the second responded to the first has not been established, and Daisen City has identified the garden's development as a matter still requiring survey. What can be said is that the storehouse and the planting around it now read as a single composition, and that the registration record says so explicitly.
Visit in October and the maples come down over the moss on that side of the house. The storehouse walls, pale and gridded, hold the corner of the view.
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Q&A
- What is okiyane construction?
- It is a doubled roof, in which a separate light roof structure is placed above the earthen roof of a storehouse. The upper roof sheds water while the air space between the two allows the earthen roof beneath to dry, protecting it from rot and frost damage.
- Can visitors go inside the miso storehouse?
- The grounds and the main house are open free of charge during the season, and the exterior of the miso storehouse is visible from the garden. Storehouse interiors on this site are opened through the paid guided tour rather than general admission, so contact the operator in advance if interior access matters to you.
- Why does a house need a dedicated building for miso?
- Households of this scale fermented and stored miso in large wooden barrels over long periods, and the process wants a stable, cool, dark environment. A thick-walled storehouse provides exactly that, and separating it from the living quarters kept the smell and the humidity out of the house.
- When is the garden at its best?
- The moss garden on the north side reads well through the green months, and autumn colour typically arrives from late October into early November, close to the end of the public opening season. The site closes for the winter, so late autumn is the last chance in any given year.
- Is the address different from the other buildings?
- Slightly. The national database lists the miso storehouse at 19-5 Nishinaka-kamimachi, while the main house, storehouse and Western wing are at number 19. The lots adjoin and form one continuous property.
Basic Information
| Name | Former Hongo Residence Miso Storehouse (Kyu Hongo-ke Jutaku Misogura) |
|---|---|
| Location | 19-5 Nishinaka-kamimachi, Kakumagawa-cho, Daisen City, Akita Prefecture |
| Category | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structures) |
| Registration date | 29 November 2016 (85th round of registration) |
| Registration number | 05-0215 |
| Registration criterion | Contributing to the historic landscape of the country |
| Date of construction | Taisho 10 (1921) |
| Structure | Earthen-walled storehouse construction, two storeys, sheet iron roof, placed-roof form |
| Building area | 66 square metres |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Master carpenter | Terashima Matsugoro |
| Owner | Daisen City |
| Public access | Grounds open late April to mid-November, 9:00 to 16:00 (last entry 15:30). Closed Mondays. Free admission. |
| Enquiries | Cultural Properties Division, Daisen City (Tel. 0187-63-8972) |
References
- National Database of Designated Cultural Properties, Agency for Cultural Affairs: Former Hongo Residence Miso Storehouse
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00011239
- Daisen City: Registered Tangible Cultural Property, Former Hongo Residence
- https://www.city.daisen.lg.jp/archive/contents-11562
- Daisen City: Public Opening of the Former Hongo Residence
- https://www.city.daisen.lg.jp/archive/contents-9764
Last verified: 2026.07.22