Komoda Family Residence Storehouse

About the Komoda Family Residence Storehouse

The Komoda Family Residence Storehouse (小茂田家住宅蔵, Komoda-ke Jūtaku Kura) is a two-storey earthen-walled storehouse built in 1927 on the Komoda family's homestead in Naganuma-machi, Isesaki City, Gunma Prefecture, and it became a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on February 17, 2004. It stands northwest of the main house with its ridge running east to west and has a footprint of 62 square meters. It is the newest of the four registered buildings on the plot.

The core is a gabled Kirizuma-zukuri storehouse, 5 ken long and 2.5 ken deep, entered from the long side in the Hirairi manner. A miso room 2.5 ken long and 2 ken deep, under a single-pitch roof, is attached to the east gable end. The Agency for Cultural Affairs is not consistent about the roof covering: the structure field of its database says steel sheet, while the description on the same page says Sangawara-buki pantiles.

A Truss Roof and Steel Sashes

The Komoda Family Residence Storehouse was registered as something "not easily reproduced," a different criterion from the main house, silkworm rearing house and well house. The features the Agency highlights all come from the new building technology of the early Showa era.

The roof frame is a King post truss. In this Western method, diagonal members run from a central post to form triangles that carry the load, a different logic from the traditional Japanese roof frame of posts standing on beams. According to the Agency, the Komoda storehouse also has diagonal braces running along the ridge and on top of the tie beams at the base of the trusses, stiffening the whole frame.

The windows have steel sashes glazed with wired glass. Earthen storehouses usually close their openings with thick plastered shutters; here the openings are framed in steel with wired glass. An old building type fitted out with trusses and steel sashes, materials and methods of the Showa era, is what gives the storehouse its value.

The Miso Room and What to Look For

The miso room on the east gable of the Komoda Family Residence Storehouse leans its single-pitch roof against the storehouse wall. The storehouse core is 5 ken long and the miso room 2.5 ken, so together they stretch about 7.5 ken from west to east. A room for keeping miso, a staple of every household, sits right against the storehouse proper.

From outside, look at the windows. The steel sashes and wired glass speak of the early Showa years in which the storehouse was built. Note too how the east end is finished, where the single-pitch roof of the miso room meets the gable.

Visiting the Storehouse

The Komoda Family Residence Storehouse is privately owned and its interior is not open to the public. Gunma Prefecture's guide limits viewing of the Komoda Family Residence to the exterior, and the truss frame is hidden inside the roof.

The storehouse stands northwest of the main house, toward the back of the plot. Please stay off the grounds and take photographs only from public ground. The history of the homestead and directions are on the Komoda Family Residence page.