Abe Family Residence Brick Storehouse

About the Abe Family Residence Brick Storehouse

The Abe Family Residence Brick Storehouse (阿部家住宅煉瓦蔵, Abe-ke Jūtaku Rengagura) is a two-storey clay-walled dozo storehouse built in the late Taisho era (1912 to 1926) west of the main house, joined to the north-west corner of the Kamizashiki guest wing, on the Abe family estate in Kayaba, Sasagino, Fukushima City, Fukushima Prefecture, and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2008.

At 16 by 6.7 metres and 109 m², the Abe Family Residence Brick Storehouse is by far the largest store on the estate, more than twice the size of the next largest, the 46 m² stone storehouse. Its ridge runs north to south under a gabled roof of sangawara pantiles; the covered Kuramae entrance on the east side is roofed in sheet metal.

Brick in Name, Clay in Structure

Despite the name, the national database records the structure as a clay storehouse. The walls are clay; the brick is a facing on the lower part. Above it the walls are finished in Shikkui plaster, and the kuramae entrance in mortar. Think of it as a clay storehouse with brick around its feet rather than a building of brick.

Brick facing at the base keeps rain splash and damp off the clay, the same job done by the Namako-kabe tiles on the Meiji silkworm storehouse. Tiles in Meiji, brick in late Taisho: on one estate you can watch the finish of a storehouse's lower wall change with the times.

The Abe Family Residence Brick Storehouse was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape.

A Reception Room Inside the Store

Inside, uses were divided by floor and by end. The southern half of the ground floor held a 15-mat kura-zashiki, a formal room built within the fireproof store; the northern half held household utensils, and the upper floor held clothing.

A kura-zashiki was where honoured guests might be received or family treasures laid out and shown. At 15 mats it is close to two ordinary reception rooms in size. With tableware in the north half and good clothes upstairs, everything needed to entertain was kept in one building.

The southern end, with the kura-zashiki, is the end that joins the Kamizashiki. Guests could be led from the guest wing into the storehouse room under cover, which shows that the family kept its hospitality on the west side of the estate.

Seeing the Abe Family Residence Brick Storehouse

The Abe Family Residence Brick Storehouse belongs to a private home and its interior is not open. Fukushima Prefecture's heritage list also states that interior photography is not permitted, so the kura-zashiki cannot currently be seen.

It stands on the west side of the plot, away from the street, and is hard to see from the road; at most its long gabled roof may show above the main house. Directions to the estate are on the Abe Family Residence page.