A Concrete Storehouse Dressed as a Plaster One
The Storehouse of the Former Hori Family Residence (旧堀家住宅蔵, Kyū Hori-ke Jūtaku Kura) is a two-storey reinforced concrete building at Tomoe-chō 1-chōme in Kiryū City, Gunma Prefecture, completed in 1929 and listed as a national Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 4 August 2015. It stands immediately north of the entrance to the main house, which was registered on the same day as a separate item.
The footprint is tiny: 19 square metres, roughly the size of a small bedroom, carried up through two floors under a tiled roof. From outside it reads as a dozō, the thick-walled plastered storehouse that stood behind every prosperous Japanese merchant house, and the proportions are deliberately tall in the way dozō proportions are. The material underneath is reinforced concrete.
That substitution is the whole point of the building. In 1929 a provincial mill owner chose the newest structural material available to him and then asked it to look like the oldest one.
Why Concrete, and Why in 1929
Storehouses in Japan were built for fire. Thick earthen walls and heavy plaster shutters were an attempt to buy an hour or two when the neighbourhood burned, and in a textile town the stakes were high: raw silk, finished cloth, pattern books, ledgers, all of it flammable and all of it representing months of work. Reinforced concrete answered the same question with a different technology.
The Agency for Cultural Affairs registered the building under the criterion covering structures that would not be easy to reproduce, and its assessment describes the storehouse as a valuable example of early Shōwa reinforced concrete construction. Concrete was not new to Japan by 1929, but outside the largest cities it was still uncommon in private commissions of this scale. Kiryū has one other well-known early concrete case, the Kinzen Building on Honchō-dōri, put up in the late Taishō era as a branch office by another weaving company and originally five storeys tall.
The interior repays a close look, because the builders had not yet stopped thinking like carpenters. Column forms and beams are left visible inside rather than concealed. In the roof space, beams are spanned across, short posts stand on them to carry the ridge, and inclined rafters run up to support the roof surface. The logic is that of a Japanese timber frame, executed in a material that does not require it. Concrete could have done the job in fewer parts. Instead the framing repeats the shapes a carpenter would have drawn.
The Man Who Ordered It
Hori Yūhei (堀祐平, 1877–1955) founded the Hori-yū Weaving Mill in 1905 and made his fortune from a ribbon fabric combining a silk warp with a rayon weft, exported in quantity to Southeast Asia. The storehouse and the house beside it went up at the peak of that trade, on a compound that also held weaving sheds, dormitories, a canteen and a water tower.
What is less often mentioned is the rest of his life. He was baptised in 1900 at the Kiryū church of the United Church of Christ in Japan and remained a believer, and the city's own account credits that faith with shaping how he ran the company, including its provision for employee welfare. As an elder of the congregation he donated both the land and the funds for the church building, which was itself registered as a cultural property in 2024.
He sat on the Kiryū city council for four terms from 1925 and became the first chairman of the city's athletic association in 1928, pushing through the construction of the Shinkawa athletic ground. A monument to him was raised there in May 1953, and the first Hori Marathon was run to mark it. The race is still held every February, starting and finishing at Shinkawa Park, and most people in Kiryū know the name Hori from the marathon long before they know it from a mill.
The mill itself did not survive. Wartime consolidation measures forced weaving companies to surrender their looms, and in October 1944 the family gave up the entire site. The sheds were later demolished and the land divided. The house and this small concrete box outlived all of it.
Seeing It
The storehouse sits on the grounds of what is now the restaurant Chocolat Noix (ショコラ・ノア), which has occupied the main house since a 2008 conversion. Kiryū City states that the property is open to dining customers and that viewing-only visits are not normally accommodated, so the practical route to seeing the building is to reserve a table by phone on 0277-44-5553. No public source says anything about access to the inside of the storehouse itself, so ask the staff when you book rather than assuming.
Service runs roughly 11:30 to 14:00 for lunch and 18:00 to 20:30 for dinner last orders. Closing days are listed differently by the restaurant's own site (Monday and Tuesday) and by third-party guides (Monday plus some Tuesdays), which is reason enough to telephone first. There is parking on site.
The site is about a six-minute walk from JR Kiryū Station, and roughly 600 metres from Nishi-Kiryū Station on the Jōmō Electric Railway, whose 1928 station building is a registered property in its own right. Ask before photographing, out of consideration for other diners.
If early concrete interests you, Kiryū rewards a longer walk: the Kinzen Building north of the station, and the former Hori-yū Weaving Mill nearby, an Ōya-stone shed with a triple sawtooth roof registered in 2006 and now a hair salon. The preserved streets of Kiryū Shinmachi lie beyond.
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Q&A
- What is the Former Hori Family Residence Storehouse, and what makes it unusual?
- It is a two-storey storehouse of 1929 standing north of the main house entrance. The exterior imitates a traditional plastered dozō, but the structure is reinforced concrete, which the Agency for Cultural Affairs values as an example of early Shōwa concrete building.
- Can I visit the Former Hori Family Residence Storehouse?
- The grounds are those of the restaurant Chocolat Noix, open to dining guests; Kiryū City notes that sightseeing-only visits are not normally accepted. Reserve on 0277-44-5553, and ask at that point about access to the storehouse interior.
- Why does the Former Hori Family Residence Storehouse look like a traditional earthen storehouse?
- The dozō form was the recognised shape for a fireproof store beside a merchant house, and the tall proportions were kept when concrete replaced earth and plaster. Inside, column forms and beams stay exposed, and the roof framing copies the layout of a timber frame.
- How is the Former Hori Family Residence Storehouse related to the main building?
- They form one property with two registrations, both made on 4 August 2015. The main house of 1927 is timber and single-storey with 278 m² of floor area; the storehouse of 1929 is concrete, two storeys and 19 m².
- Where else in Kiryu can I see early reinforced concrete architecture?
- The Kinzen Building on Honchō-dōri, built in the late Taishō era by the Kinzen weaving company and originally five storeys, is the best-known local example. It is a registered cultural property and now houses an apparel shop.
Basic Information
| Name | Former Hori Family Residence Storehouse (旧堀家住宅蔵) |
|---|---|
| Location | 1117-1 Aza Kakinoki, Tomoe-chō 1-chōme, Kiryū City, Gunma Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structures); registration no. 10-0324, 81st round of registrations |
| Year Designated | 4 August 2015 |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Two storeys, reinforced concrete, tiled roof; building area 19 m² |
| Owner | Not published in the Agency for Cultural Affairs database |
| Public Access | On the grounds of the restaurant Chocolat Noix; open to dining customers, viewing-only visits not normally accepted |
References
- National Cultural Properties Database — Former Hori Family Residence Storehouse
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00010562
- Kiryu City — Former Hori Family Residence
- https://www.city.kiryu.lg.jp/kankou/bunkazai/1010700/kunitouroku/1013391.html
- Kiryu City — Hori Marathon
- https://www.city.kiryu.lg.jp/kurashi/sports/1006428/1007704/index.html
- Kiryu City — Registered Tangible Cultural Properties
- https://www.city.kiryu.lg.jp/kankou/bunkazai/1010700/kunitouroku/index.html
Last verified: 2026.08.08