A Brick Storehouse Built for Tea
Maedaen Honten Warehouse (前田園本店倉庫, also written Maeda-en Honten Soko) is a two-storey brick and timber storehouse at 590-1 Tonomachi in Nogata City, Fukuoka Prefecture, built around 1927 and entered on Japan's register of Tangible Cultural Properties on 24 December 2013. Its registration number is 40-0108 and its building area is 111 square metres.
The warehouse sits at the back of the plot, set on an east-west axis and reached from the shop at the front through a run of zashiki reception rooms. The roof is gabled and laid with sangawara pantiles, the same covering used on the shop. Entry is at the east gable end. At the opposite gable there is a door faced in iron sheet, and windows are cut into the walls around the building.
Construction mixes two materials that rarely share a wall in Japanese vernacular building of this date. The structure combines brickwork with a timber frame, the outer surfaces are clad in iron sheet, and the interior is finished in mortar. Nogata City records the ground floor as an earth-floored doma and the upper floor as boarded.
Why a Tea Warehouse Was Built This Way
Tea is a demanding thing to store. Leaf picks up moisture from damp air and takes on smells from whatever sits nearby, and once either happens the flavour does not come back. Fire is the other threat, and in a town of timber shops a wholesaler's entire stock could vanish in an afternoon. Brick, iron sheet and mortar answer both problems at once, which is a reasonable way to read the material choices here even though no builder's statement of intent has been published.
Look up inside and the roof gives away a second influence. The frame is a king post truss, a Western carpentry form that entered Japan through Meiji-period engineering and was widely adopted for factories, warehouses and station buildings. It spans wider than a traditional Japanese roof frame of the same depth and leaves the floor below free of posts, which is what a storehouse wants.
The Agency for Cultural Affairs accepted the building under the first registration criterion, as a structure contributing to the historic landscape of the country. It was listed in the 76th round of registrations on the same day as the shop in front of it, and the pairing is deliberate: shop and warehouse together record how a tea wholesaler in the Chikuho coalfield organised a working plot in the 1920s.
The construction date carries the same small uncertainty as the shop. The national database gives around Showa 2, that is 1927. Nogata City and local reporting date the front building to 1926, the last year of Taisho. No published document resolves the difference.
The Warehouse Now: A Hall Behind the Cafe
For years after the tea business wound down, the warehouse simply stood there. Then the whole plot changed hands.
Shiokawa Naoto, a Nogata city employee and licensed first-class architect, bought the property to stop the shop being demolished, and reopened the front building as Shio Cafe in April 2022. The warehouse behind was the second phase. Renovation work turned it into a rentable hall, now operating as Shio Cafe Gekijo, meaning Shio Cafe Theatre.
The hall takes concerts, film screenings, meetings and light exercise classes. Equipment is hired by the hour and listed openly: the room itself, a piano, air conditioning units, JBL and BOSE speakers, a projector, a dressing room and up to fifty folding chairs. Power outlets are counted individually, fourteen of them, with daisy-chaining not permitted. That level of detail tells you the building is being run as a working venue rather than shown as an exhibit.
For visitors this shapes what is possible. The exterior can be seen from within the cafe's grounds, and the interior opens when an event is running or when the space has been booked. Anyone wanting a proper look should contact the operators by telephone or LINE beforehand rather than turning up and walking through. This is a private property in daily use.
Getting there is the same walk as for the shop: about ten to eleven minutes from the east exit of JR Nogata Station, through the covered shopping street towards Tonomachi, with parking on site. Since the two registered buildings share one plot, most people see both in a single visit, and it is worth taking a minute at the back of the site to compare the black plaster and copper of the street frontage with the plain iron sheet at the rear.
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Q&A
- Can visitors see Maedaen Honten Warehouse?
- The exterior is visible from the grounds of Shio Cafe, which occupies the shop building on the same plot. The interior opens when an event is being held or when the hall has been reserved. Contact the operators by telephone or LINE in advance if you want to look inside, since this is private property in daily use.
- What is Maedaen Honten Warehouse used for now?
- It operates as Shio Cafe Gekijo, a hall available for hire. Concerts, film screenings, meetings and light exercise sessions are held there. A piano, projector, speakers and up to fifty folding chairs are listed among the items available, charged by the hour.
- What makes the structure of Maedaen Honten Warehouse unusual?
- It combines brickwork with a timber frame across two storeys, wraps the exterior in iron sheet and finishes the interior in mortar. The roof is carried on a king post truss, a Western framing type adopted in Japan from the Meiji period for buildings needing clear spans. Few small-town merchant storehouses of the 1920s combine all of these.
- When was Maedaen Honten Warehouse registered as a cultural property?
- Registration took effect on 24 December 2013 (Heisei 25) under registration number 40-0108, in the 76th round of listings. The Agency for Cultural Affairs dates construction to around 1927 (Showa 2), while Nogata City and local reporting place the neighbouring shop in 1926.
- How is Maedaen Honten Warehouse related to Maedaen Honten Store?
- They stand on the same plot at 590-1 Tonomachi and were registered on the same day as a pair. The shop faces the street; the warehouse sits behind it, connected through the reception rooms in between. Together they show how a tea wholesaling business laid out its premises.
Basic Information
| Name | Maedaen Honten Warehouse (前田園本店倉庫 / Maeda-en Honten Soko), locally Kyu Maedaen Honten Soko |
|---|---|
| Location | 590-1 Tonomachi, Nogata City, Fukuoka Prefecture (street address 12-23 Tonomachi) |
| Designation | National Registered Tangible Cultural Property (building), registration number 40-0108, 76th round |
| Year Designated | 24 December 2013 (Heisei 25) |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Two-storey brick and timber construction, tiled roof, building area 111 square metres; gabled sangawara pantile roof, king post truss |
| Owner | Privately owned; no owner name is published in the national database |
| Public Access | Exterior visible from the Shio Cafe grounds; interior open during events or by advance booking as Shio Cafe Gekijo |
References
- National Cultural Properties Database, Agency for Cultural Affairs — Maedaen Honten Warehouse
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00009852
- Cultural Heritage Online — Maedaen Honten Warehouse
- https://bunka.nii.ac.jp/heritages/detail/231961
- Shio Cafe Gekijo — hall hire information
- https://shiocafe.jp/
- Shio Cafe — shop information and access
- https://www.shiocafe.com/about.php
- Sasatto (Yomiuri Shimbun Seibu) — report noting the warehouse conversion
- https://sasatto.jp/article/entry-3726.html
Last verified: 2026.08.25