Komi Family Residence (Mizumuraen) Front Storehouse

The storehouse that closes the row

The Komi Family Residence (Mizumuraen) Front Storehouse (小見家住宅（水村園）前蔵, Komi-ke Jūtaku Maegura) is a 2-storey Dozo-zukuri storehouse built in the mid-Meiji era 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 17 square metres in the north-west corner of the lot, built directly against the north gable of the New Storehouse. The plan is 2 and a half Ken by 2 ken, the same depth as its neighbour, under a north-south Kirizuma-zukuri gabled roof of Sangawara-buki tiles with the entrance on the long side. Its ridge is lower than the New Storehouse's, and its east doorway is a plain sliding door.

Of the five storehouses along the west side, it is the northernmost. The line that starts with the New Zashiki at the south end stops here.

Why it was registered

The Komi Family Residence (Mizumuraen) Front Storehouse holds registration No. 10-0048 and was listed as a building that would not be easy to reproduce. Like the New Storehouse, it is classed as a commercial building, part of the tea business rather than the household.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes its job as securing the northern end of the storehouse row that served as the lot's firebreak. With the New Zashiki at one end and the Front Storehouse at the other, the western boundary is closed in earthen walls from end to end.

Where the name comes from, the Agency does not say. The other storehouses are named for what they held (kimono, miso) or for being newer; this one carries a name that points instead to position.

What to look for

The Komi Family Residence (Mizumuraen) Front Storehouse is best understood beside the New Storehouse. The two share a depth of 2 ken and run on gable to gable, yet the Front Storehouse has the lower ridge and a sliding door where its neighbour has hinged double doors.

Both served the business, but one was given a heavier front than the other. The record does not say what each held, though the contrast suggests a pecking order among the storehouses themselves.

Standing in the corner, the Front Storehouse turns its north and west walls to the neighbouring properties, guarding two boundaries at once.

Visiting

The Komi Family Residence (Mizumuraen) Front Storehouse is a private building behind a working tea shop and is not open to the public. Ask the shop about viewing or photography.

If you are invited in, look for the Front Storehouse at the north end of the alley, on the west side. Looking at the double doors of the New Storehouse and then the sliding door of the Front Storehouse makes the difference between them easy to see.