Morikyu Shoten Main House

A Gable-Fronted House on the Old Road

The Morikyu Shoten Main House (森九商店主屋) is a brewer's townhouse of 1914 in Araya Omotemachi, Akita City, Akita Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) on August 3, 2006 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency records a timber building, single-storey with a partial upper floor, roofed in sheet steel, with a building area of 175 square metres; registration number 05-0143.

A Gable-Fronted Townhouse

The Morikyu Shoten Main House faces west onto the old highway through Araya Omotemachi, a street of many brewers (Agency for Cultural Affairs). It measures 11 and a half bays by 5, which Akita Prefecture gives as about 20.8 metres by about 9 metres. It is a timber building with a gabled roof in sheet steel, entered at the gable end in the Tsumairi manner, and a through passage of beaten earth, a Doma, runs along its south side.

That passage leads from the street door to the back of the lot. The factory adjoins the Morikyu Shoten Main House on the east, and the brewing storehouse continues beyond it (Agency for Cultural Affairs), so the earth-floored passage of the house links the street with the workrooms behind.

Why It Was Registered

The Agency notes the pent roof, a Geya one and a half bays deep, that shelters the front, and the gable above it where the roof beams are left exposed as decoration; it registered the Morikyu Shoten Main House for shaping the look of the old highway.

Akita Prefecture points to the same gable, with decorative beams layered over white Shikkui plaster, and counts the house as a key part of a district where traditional townhouses keep the streets strongly historic.

What to Look For

The gable facing the street is the thing to see. Decorative beams are layered over white plaster (Akita Prefecture), so that above the pent roof the timber lines step up the wall.

Akita City's illustrated map describes the typical Araya townhouse as gable-fronted, two storeys high, with its gable dressed in several tiers of decorative beams and struts. The Morikyu Shoten Main House follows the same habit of showing off its beams, and comparing it with other gable ends along the street is a good way to read the townscape.

Visiting

The Morikyu Shoten Main House stands right on Omotemachi street, so its gable and pent roof can be seen from the road. No official information was found on interior access, visits or photography, and Akita City's map asks walkers not to enter private houses or grounds.