Abe Family Residence Bunko Storehouse

About the Abe Family Residence Bunko Storehouse

The Abe Family Residence Bunko Storehouse (阿部家住宅文庫蔵, Abe-ke Jūtaku Bunkogura) is a two-storey clay-walled dozo storehouse built in the late Meiji era (1868 to 1912) between the Kamizashiki guest wing and the brick storehouse on the Abe family estate in Kayaba, Sasagino, Fukushima City, Fukushima Prefecture, and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2008.

The Abe Family Residence Bunko Storehouse measures 7.9 by 5.0 metres, a building area of 40 m², with its ridge running north to south. The gabled roof is an Okiyane, set clear of the walls and laid with sangawara pantiles.

A Store for Papers and Heirlooms

A bunkogura is, in general, a storehouse for books, deeds, account ledgers and a family's valued possessions. No source records what this one held, but its position is suggestive: on the west side of the estate, between a guest wing and the late-Taisho brick storehouse, in the row of buildings used to receive visitors.

The Abe Family Residence Bunko Storehouse was registered as a model of design. It is the only one of the six storehouses registered on that basis; the other five were registered for their contribution to the landscape. The workmanship of the building itself was judged exemplary.

White Walls to the Eaves

What the Agency for Cultural Affairs singles out is the plasterwork. The storehouse stands on cut-stone footings and is finished in white Shikkui plaster, taken right up to the eaves of the roof.

With an okiyane there is usually a visible gap between wall and roof, and the roof timbers show from outside. Here the plaster wraps up to the eave line, so the store reads as a clean white box with a roof set on top. Compare the front storehouse on the same estate, which marks the same zone with a black Hachimaki band.

The base of the walls is rendered in mortar. The window in the south gable has a shutter finished in black plaster, described by the agency as imposing. It is the one dark note on an otherwise white wall.

Seeing the Abe Family Residence Bunko Storehouse

The Abe Family Residence Bunko 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.

Set between the Kamizashiki and the brick storehouse on the west side of the plot, it is hard to see from the road. Directions to the estate are on the Abe Family Residence page.