What yōgoya means
Yōgoya is a Western-style roof frame that carries the roof on trusses. A level tie beam and inclined principal rafters form a triangle, braced inside with a king post, struts and similar members. Because the loads are taken by triangulated frames, wide spans can be bridged without intermediate posts.
Its counterpart is Wagoya, the traditional Japanese roof frame in which level beams span from one eave beam to the other and short posts standing on them carry the purlins and ridge; the beams resist the roof load in bending. Wide spans in wagoya call for heavy beams, whereas yōgoya can cover them with relatively slender timbers.
Introduced with Western architecture from the Meiji era, yōgoya spread to factories, warehouses, schools and stations, all of which needed large open spaces. In time many buildings kept the outward form of a traditional storehouse while using yōgoya for the roof frame alone.
Reading the records and the building
Records state that the roof frame is yōgoya. At the Ishimago brewery in Yuzawa, Akita, the record for the No. 2 storehouse of 1910 notes that it closely resembles the No. 1 storehouse not only in appearance and size but also in details of construction such as its yōgoya roof, and the No. 5 storehouse of 1916 has one too. The east storehouse of the former Ishibashi family in Hikone, Shiga, is a gabled, pantiled storehouse entered from the gable end, with a yōgoya roof. In each case the exterior is a traditional storehouse and only the roof frame is Western.
Records sometimes name the specific type, as a king post truss with one central post or a queen post truss with two. Where a record gives the type, articles should use it.
On site, look up into the roof space. Inclined rafters and a level tie beam forming triangles indicate yōgoya; short posts standing in rows on level beams indicate wagoya.
References
- 石孫本店２号蔵｜国指定文化財等データベース（文化庁）
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00000935
- 石孫本店５号蔵｜国指定文化財等データベース（文化庁）
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00000938
- 旧石橋家住宅東蔵｜国指定文化財等データベース（文化庁）
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00009630
Last verified: 2026.09.26