Takinami Family Residence Large Storehouse

About the Takinami Family Residence Large Storehouse

The Takinami Family Residence Large Storehouse (瀧波家住宅大蔵, Takinami-ke Jūtaku Ōgura) is a clay-walled storehouse built around 1887 just north of the main house on the Takinami property in Honmachi 3-chome, Sabae City, Fukui Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on March 29, 2013.

It is a two-storey Dozo-zukuri building with a Kirizuma-zukuri gabled roof of Sangawara-buki pantiles, its ridge running east to west. It measures 15.2 meters long by 4.8 meters deep, with a footprint of 80 square meters, so it is roughly three times as long as it is deep. Of the two storehouses on the Takinami property, this is the larger.

A Heavy, Imposing Storehouse

The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes the Takinami Family Residence Large Storehouse as a large storehouse of solid, imposing build. It is dated to around 1887, the same period as the main house, and shows how a merchant family with a shop on the highway kept a big fireproof store at the back of the lot for household goods and stock. It was registered under the criterion that it contributes to the historic landscape of the country.

The sources describe its structure differently. The Agency lists it as dozo-zukuri, while Sabae City's page calls it timber-built. Dozo-zukuri means a timber frame packed with thick layers of clay, so the city's wording seems to refer to the frame. This article follows the Agency.

Walls and Earthen Shutters

The walls of the Takinami storehouse are finished in white Shikkui lime plaster, with the base protected by stone facing and clapboarding held by vertical battens. Sabae City notes that on the ground floor the north wall is boarded while the south, west and east walls are faced in stone. On the upper floor those same three sides are plastered white all over. Only the north side of the upper floor is covered in boards made to look like plaster, and the city believes it was originally plastered too. The three faces most often seen got the better finish.

The upper windows are fitted with earthen shutters finished in Kakegonuri, in which the edges of the shutter and the window frame are built up in matching steps so that they lock together when closed and keep out fire and smoke. Each window carries one of these thick doors.

Lean-to roofs shelter the east gable and the two doorways on the south side. The south face looks toward the main house, and with two entrances side by side it was most likely the working face where goods went in and out.

Viewing the Takinami Family Residence Large Storehouse

The Takinami Family Residence Large Storehouse stands on the grounds of a private home, and Sabae City states that its interior is not open to the public. No open days or special viewings have been announced.

The storehouse runs east to west behind the main house, with its east gable turned toward the highway. How much of it can be seen from the street depends on walls and neighboring buildings. If you catch sight of it, look for the lean-to on the gable end and the thickness of the earthen shutters on the upper windows. There is no published rule on photography, but please stay off the property.