Komi Family Residence (Mizumuraen) New Storehouse

The tallest storehouse, built for tea

The Komi Family Residence (Mizumuraen) New Storehouse (小見家住宅（水村園）新蔵, Komi-ke Jūtaku Shingura) is a 2-storey Dozo-zukuri storehouse completed in 1887 at the Mizumuraen tea shop in Honmachi, Takasaki City, Gunma Prefecture, and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on December 4, 2000.

It covers 23 square metres on a plan of 3 and a half Ken by 2 ken. The ridge runs north to south under a Kirizuma-zukuri gabled roof of Sangawara-buki tiles, the entrance lies on the long side in the Hirairi manner, and the east face carries a pair of hinged double doors. According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs, its ridge is the highest of any storehouse on the lot.

The New Storehouse stands north of the Miso Storehouse. The Front Storehouse is built against its north gable, and the Brick Storehouse faces it across the alley.

Why it was registered

The Komi Family Residence (Mizumuraen) New Storehouse carries registration No. 10-0047 and was listed as a building that would not be easy to reproduce. The Agency classes it as a commercial building, unlike the household storehouses to the south.

The case rests on its interior. Along the west and north walls of the upper floor, tea chests are built into the structure itself. Tea readily absorbs moisture and stray odours, and merchants have long kept it sealed in dedicated chests. Making those chests part of the walls tells you plainly what this building was for. The Agency calls it a valuable storehouse for what it reveals about the history of the tea trade here.

The Agency notes that the staircase is "currently" fixed against the south gable wall. The qualifier suggests the stair may once have stood somewhere else.

What to look for

From outside, look first at the ridge. The rise in rooflines that begins with the low New Zashiki at the south end of the row peaks with the Komi Family Residence (Mizumuraen) New Storehouse.

Then compare it with its northern neighbour. The Front Storehouse has the same 2-ken depth, but a lower ridge and a simple sliding door. The New Storehouse, with its hinged double doors, was given the heavier dress.

The shop says leaves from an 1881 harvest have been kept in tea chests in its storehouses. It does not say which storehouse, but no building on the lot gives clearer form to the work of keeping tea safe than this one, lined upstairs with its own chests.

Visiting

The Komi Family Residence (Mizumuraen) New Storehouse is private property behind a working tea shop and is not open to the public, and the built-in tea chests upstairs are not on display. Ask at the shop if you hope to view or photograph the building.

If you are invited into the lot, stand in the alley and look at the double doors on the east face and the tall gable rising above them. Set beside the Front Storehouse, the difference in rank shows in both door and roof.