Enomoto Family Residence North Storehouse

What Is the Enomoto Family Residence North Storehouse?

The Enomoto Family Residence North Storehouse (榎本家住宅北土蔵, Enomoto-ke Jūtaku Kita-dozō) is a 2-storey earthen-walled storehouse for household goods on the Enomoto estate in Fusa, Abiko City, Chiba Prefecture; built in 1884, it became a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 3 December 2024.

The North Storehouse stands north of the annex and has a building area of 20 square meters. Of the six registered buildings on the estate, it is the only one with a firmly recorded date. Abiko City's press release explains that an ink inscription on the ridge beam settles the year. The other five are dated by inference, from their construction, old photographs or the weathering of their timbers.

Moved and Restored

The Agency for Cultural Affairs database records that the Enomoto Family Residence North Storehouse was relocated around 1958 and restored in 2011. The earlier date coincides with the widening of the Tone River levee, when several buildings on the estate were shifted by hikiya (曳家), the technique of moving a building in one piece.

Abiko City's press release of July 2024 tells a slightly different story. It names the main house, annex, kettle house and main gate as the four buildings moved, and does not include the storehouse. This article follows the Agency's record, but the sources do not agree on how the North Storehouse came to stand where it does.

Walls Wrapped in Concrete

The building runs east to west under a gabled Kirizuma-zukuri roof of Sangawara-buki pan tiles. What sets it apart from the usual image of a white-plastered kura is its skin: the outer face of the earthen walls has been covered with concrete.

The doors are finished in Kakegonuri. In this plasterer's technique the edges of the heavy doors and the frame are built up in matching steps, so that when the doors close the steps lock together and seal the gap against fire and air. The Agency counts these doors among the details that make this a finely finished storehouse.

An Upper Floor Open to the Roof

Each floor of the Enomoto Family Residence North Storehouse is a single room with a plank floor, reached by a stair in the southwest corner. The plan is plain, but upstairs there is no ceiling, and the roof structure is left in full view.

That structure is a traditional Wagoya frame: two tiers of beams, with short posts standing on them to carry the roof. Across the top, thick planks are laid to form the roof itself. The Agency's database includes a photograph of the upper floor taken from the west.

Why It Was Registered

The Enomoto Family Residence North Storehouse was registered under number 12-0330 as a model of fine design. Only it and the annex were registered on that basis among the six buildings, and the qualities cited are those of the storehouse itself: its stepped plaster doors and its exposed roof frame.

Visiting

The Enomoto Family Residence North Storehouse is part of a private home, and neither the building nor its surroundings are open to the public. It stands deep in the grounds north of the annex, so it is hard to make out from the street.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs database has an exterior view from the northwest and a photograph of the upper floor. Please do not enter the property.