Matsumotoya

Three storehouses on one narrow plot in Kitakata

Matsumotoya (松本屋) is a merchant property in Sanchome, Kitakata City, Fukushima Prefecture, where a shop storehouse, a document storehouse and a household storehouse, built between the late Taisho era (1919–1926) and about 1928, were listed as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on 1 August 2016.

The name is read Matsumoto-ya. All three buildings belong to Matsumotoya Ltd., a private company, and carry the consecutive registration numbers 07-0162, 07-0163 and 07-0164. Each is a two-storey Dozo-zukuri storehouse with a tiled roof.

Fukushima Prefecture describes Kitakata as a town where more than 4,000 storehouses are still part of daily life. On this one plot the three Matsumotoya buildings show how a merchant divided his storehouses: trade at the street, papers and household goods kept behind.

The order of building

According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs, the document storehouse and the household storehouse are the older pair, both of the late Taisho era (1919–1926). The shop storehouse on the street is newer, dated to about 1928.

So the two rear buildings came first and the shop front followed. The rear pair share almost the same wall finishes and iron-shuttered windows, and the Agency itself notes that the household storehouse is close in design to the document storehouse.

How the plot is laid out

The Matsumotoya plot is a long, narrow strip, its frontage on the street much shorter than its depth. The shop storehouse faces west onto that street, with the shop on the ground floor and two eight-Tatami rooms above.

The document storehouse stands on the south side of the plot, a little toward the east, with its main face and an anteroom to the west. The household storehouse occupies the southeast corner and is entered from the north. The shop faces the street; the stores for papers and goods are kept to the back.

In building area the shop storehouse is the largest at 49 square metres, against 38 square metres for the document storehouse and 41 square metres for the household storehouse.

Three registered buildings

The three Matsumotoya storehouses were registered together on 1 August 2016, all for contributing to the historic landscape of the country.

The Agency points to the heavy, imposing front of the shop storehouse, with three upper windows fitted with double-leaf Tsuchido earthen doors under a small canopy with side walls, and to the document storehouse, whose windows otherwise carry iron shutters but whose upper front window alone has earthen doors to give it a proper face. Both buildings keep their earthen doors for the side that is seen.

Visiting

No public opening of the three buildings as cultural properties had been announced as of October 2026. The owner, Matsumotoya Ltd., is listed in map directories as a seller of books and stationery, but its opening days and hours could not be confirmed from official sources. If you go into the shop, do so as a customer, and ask the staff before taking any photographs inside.

The front of the shop storehouse faces the street, and its three upper windows and canopy can be seen from the road. The document storehouse and the household storehouse stand at the back of the plot, and how much of them shows from the street has not been confirmed. Please do not walk into the rear of the property.

Getting there

Matsumotoya is about 800 metres north-northeast of Kitakata Station on the JR Ban-etsu West Line, as the crow flies (an estimate from the coordinates of the station and the address). It is within easy walking distance of the station. No visitor parking is advertised.