Yatsuzuka Family Residence Storehouse

A Meiji Storehouse Carried Across Matsuyama

The Yatsuzuka Family Residence Storehouse (八束家住宅蔵, Yatsuzuka-ke Jūtaku Kura) is a two-storey Dozo-zukuri earthen-walled storehouse of the middle Meiji era standing in the northwest corner of the Yatsuzuka residence at Mochidacho, Matsuyama City, Ehime Prefecture, and listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on August 4, 2015. The main house and the waiting arbor on the same plot were both built in 1936; the storehouse is about half a century older than either.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs database places its construction in the middle Meiji era, between 1883 and 1897. It began life at the family's earlier residence in Minatomachi, elsewhere in Matsuyama, as one of three storehouses there. When the household moved to Mochidacho in 1936, this single building was taken apart, carried across the city and reassembled.

It measures two and a half ken along the ridge by two ken across, roofed in Sangawara-buki pantiles over a Kirizuma-zukuri gable, with the doorway on the east side under a small pentroof. A single-storey timber annex adjoins it to the south, bringing the combined building area to 29 square meters.

Why It Was Registered, and Two Accounts of Its Age

The registration criterion cited is contribution to the historic landscape of Japan. The building carries number 38-0112 and belongs to the 81st round of listings, sharing its registration date with the main house and the waiting arbor. The national database values it as the element that shapes the look of the compound's northwest corner.

The sources disagree about when it was built. The Agency for Cultural Affairs gives the middle Meiji era, between 1883 and 1897. Matsuyama City puts it in the Meiji thirties, around 1897 to 1906, and calls the building roughly 130 years old. The gap is about a decade. This article follows the national database as the primary source and records the difference here. On the relocation of 1936 the two accounts agree.

Registration in this category rests on what a building is now rather than on where it first stood, which is why a relocated structure qualifies. In the Yatsuzuka Family Residence Storehouse, Meiji craftsmanship from Minatomachi and a decision taken in 1936 about how to rebuild it sit together in one small structure.

What to Look For

The outer wall changes finish as it rises. The upper storey is coated in black Shikkui lime plaster; the lower band is mortar with an exposed-aggregate wash; and a granite plinth runs along the base. Black above, sand color in the middle, grey stone below. Storehouses of this type are usually pictured in white plaster, but the Yatsuzuka Family Residence Storehouse is worked in black throughout.

The east doorway holds four doors in sequence. Outermost is a pair of concrete leaves; behind them run three sliding panels, in order a plaster-faced fire door, a boarded door part of which is latticed, and a screen door. Fire, security and ventilation each get a leaf of their own. The effort of opening and closing all four says something about the value of what was kept inside.

Inside, the roof frame uses a large-section log as a transverse beam, with raked beams springing from it so that the space up under the roof can be used. In a two-storey storehouse of this size, every cubic meter of the attic counts.

The annex to the south was added when the storehouse was re-erected in 1936. It is built in Shinkabe, with exposed posts and a cedar-bark skirt, matching the tone of the older walls beside it. Cedar bark reappears on the tea room and the waiting arbor elsewhere on the plot, so the same material ties old and new together.

Visiting

The Yatsuzuka Family Residence Storehouse is not open to the public. The property is privately owned and still occupied as a home. The interior of the storehouse cannot be seen, the grounds may not be entered, and no opening days or special viewings have been announced (checked September 5, 2026).

The storehouse stands at the back corner of a compound enclosed by walls and a main gate, so expect no more than a glimpse of roof and upper wall from the public road. Photography inside the grounds is not possible, and cameras should not be aimed into the living quarters from outside.

The nearest tram stop is Minamimachi on the Iyotetsu Jonan line, about a 10-minute walk to the south. The site lies about 1.5 kilometers east of Matsuyama Castle and about 1 kilometer southwest of Dogo Onsen, and a single tram ride reaches it from either Matsuyama-shi Station or Dogo Onsen.

Questions about the building as a cultural asset are handled by the Cultural Properties Division of Matsuyama City, telephone 089-948-6603. The city website carries a full list of its Registered Tangible Cultural Properties.