Kimura Family Residence Storehouse

The storehouse that turns its face to the water

Kimura Family Residence Storehouse (木村家住宅土蔵, Kimura-ke Jūtaku Dozō) is a two-storey Dozo-zukuri building at Mitsu 1-chome in Matsuyama, Ehime Prefecture, dated to the early Meiji period and listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 29 March 2019.

It occupies more than half of the eastern edge of the Kimura property, standing between the main house and the street that runs along the harbour. The building area is 34 square metres, the roof is Kirizuma-zukuri clad in metal sheet, and the doorway sits toward the south end of the west wall, facing back into the courtyard. Part of the base course carries Namako-kabe, the lattice of square tiles and raised plaster ridges used on storehouses along the Inland Sea.

The two authoritative sources give the date differently. The Agency for Cultural Affairs records the building as early Meiji, a span of 1868 to 1882, while Matsuyama City states that it is said to have gone up at the same time as the main house, in 1881. The city's account is a local tradition rather than a documented date, and the national database allows for the wider range.

From rice store to study

Kimura Family Residence Storehouse began as a rice store, which is what a shipping family on this coast would have needed most. Its later life is more unusual. At some point the ground floor was rebuilt as two Western-style board-floored rooms, and three large sash windows were cut into the east wall, the side facing the sea. Matsuyama City records a family tradition that Kimura Matasaburō, the second head of the household, had the work done in the late Meiji period so that he could use the room as a study. No document survives to confirm it.

The alteration is easy to underestimate. Storehouses were built to keep light and damp out; opening three tall windows toward the water reverses the whole logic of the type. A staircase was fitted into the southeast corner, with a bookcase and cupboards built into the space beneath it. The upper floor was left plain, a single board-floored room with no ceiling, so the frame is visible: a large beam runs down the centre along the length of the building, and shorter beams rise toward it from the side walls. An opening in the northwest corner connects to the detached wing next door.

What the east wall shows

The registration cites the criterion that a building contributes to the historic character of the national landscape, and Kimura Family Residence Storehouse carries registration number 38-128. The reason is on the harbour side. Its east elevation, with three sash windows below and a single window with a moulded surround at the centre of the upper floor above a vertically boarded base, forms the seaward face of the property together with the detached wing. Approach Mitsu from the water, as goods and passengers once did, and this is the wall that was meant to be seen.

Damage is part of the record too. The plaster and Namako-kabe on the courtyard side were partly lost when typhoon rain and wind brought down the section north of the entrance during the Shōwa 40s, that is between 1965 and 1974, and the repair was made in sprayed mortar rather than in the original finish. The roof was pantiled until 2010, when decay forced a change to metal sheet. Neither repair was concealed, and both are legible from a few paces away.

Visiting Kimura Family Residence Storehouse

The property is privately owned and opened by local volunteers on the second and fourth Saturday of each month, from 1:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., when the main house operates as Kimura-tei Café. Visitors can look around the buildings during those hours, and the group also opens on other dates for events. There is a winter break and the schedule shifts, so telephone 070-5510-3145 or check the operators' Instagram account before making the trip. Whether the storehouse interior is accessible depends on the day and on how the rooms are being used.

Getting there is part of the pleasure. Take the Iyotetsu Takahama Line to Minatoyama Station, walk two minutes to the landing, and cross on the Mitsu Ferry, which is legally a stretch of city road and therefore free, running from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. throughout the year. From the Mitsu landing the property is about a minute away. Mitsu Station is roughly fifteen minutes on foot. No parking is provided.

Photography inside has not been confirmed as permitted, so ask on the day. The east wall of Kimura Family Residence Storehouse faces a public street and can be photographed from there at any time; late afternoon light rakes across the boarded base and shows the surface texture well.