Sakai Family Residence Cargo Storehouse

About the Sakai Family Residence Cargo Storehouse

The Sakai Family Residence Cargo Storehouse (坂井家住宅荷蔵, Sakai-ke Jūtaku Nigura) is a 2-storey earthen-walled Dozo-zukuri storehouse of the early Meiji era in Kitahonmachi, Mikuni-cho, Sakai City, Fukui Prefecture, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2005.

The Sakai Family Residence Cargo Storehouse adjoins the south side of the storehouse and stands at the far end of the property, facing the Kuzuryū River. It measures 5 by 3.5 ken (a ken is about 1.8 m) and has a building area of 58 m².

The Face the House Turns to the River

The Cargo Storehouse was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape. The Agency for Cultural Affairs calls it carefully built, and says that its weatherboarded south gable, facing the Kuzuryū River, recalls the days when shipping thrived in Mikuni.

If the main house is the face the property shows the street, the Cargo Storehouse is the face it shows the river. The direction this storehouse faces tells you which way a port-town household looked for its living.

A Passage, a Back Door and a Boarded Gable

The roof is a 2-storey gable (Kirizuma-zukuri) covered in Sangawara-buki pantiles. Inside, the westernmost 1 ken of the building is a passage continuing from the storehouse to the north, ending at a back door in the south wall. The route that starts as the earthen corridor in the main house thus runs past the storehouse and along the west side of the Cargo Storehouse to the river side.

The south gable, toward the river, is clad in weatherboarding, which shields the earthen wall from rain and wind on the side most exposed to the river.

The Agency describes it as carefully built, and the boarded river gable shows that care was taken over both its use and its appearance.

Seeing the Sakai Family Residence Cargo Storehouse

The Cargo Storehouse belongs to a private home and we found no information on public access (checked October 2026). It stands at the back of the property and cannot be seen from the street side; we could not confirm how it looks from the river side.

Access and the layout of the whole property are on the Sakai Family Residence (Mikuni) page.