Tomae

What a tomae is

Tomae refers to the doorway of a storehouse built in Dozo-zukuri together with the space directly in front of it. It is one of the few openings through the thick earthen wall, and the door and its hood together form a single composition.

The Sato Residence new storehouse in Iwate Prefecture, built in 1922, is described as having walls divided into three bands by projecting courses, brick at the base and plaster above, a pantiled roof finished at the eaves in a quilted manner, and a distinctive bracketed hood over the doorway among its decorative features.

The Watanabe Residence storehouse in Fukushima Prefecture, built in 1821, is described as having a steeply pitched gabled roof standing free of the walls and a sturdy hood over the doorway on the gable end, both suited to a region of heavy snow.

The door itself is thick. The Fujiseitei storehouse in Shiga Prefecture, from about 1884, is described as opening onto the through-passage of the main house, with a stepped and plastered door hung in its frame and lime-plastered outer walls. The stepped finish closes the gap between door and frame against fire and damp.

A neighbouring term

Records also speak of the area in front of the door as a space in its own right. The Fukuda Residence storehouse in Kochi Prefecture, built in 1919, is described as having a lean-to on its east side sheltering that area together with a three-mat watchman's room.

The difference is one of focus. One term names the opening and its surround; the other names the space kept clear in front of it. Both appear in the records, and quoting whichever word the entry uses avoids blurring them.

When visiting, note which face of the storehouse the door is on. In a building entered at the gable end the opening sits beneath the triangular wall; in one entered from the eaves side it sits beneath the run of the eaves. The shape of the hood and the carving of its brackets are where individual storehouses differ most.