Kojimaya Storehouse

One Storehouse, a Registered Tangible Cultural Property since 2017

Kojimaya Storehouse (小島屋土蔵, Kojimaya Dozo) stands at 708-2 Saijo-honmachi, Higashihiroshima City, Hiroshima Prefecture, an Edo-period building entered on the register of tangible cultural properties on 27 October 2017. It is a registered property rather than a designated one.

The quantity is one building.

The structure is of earthen construction, two-storeyed, tiled, with a floor area of 28 square metres. The date field reads Edo and the year field 1836.

Dated by an Inscription on the Window Grille

Letters giving the year of building survive on the window's metalwork.

The Agency records that its date is made clear by an inscription on the iron grille of a window.

Letters cut into the iron bars set in the window tell the year it was built. The date field gives a single year, 1836.

At Manpukuji and the former Takahashi residence, ridge tablets carry the date; at the Kusumori Kahoku residence, inked inscriptions and a house plan. All are written on wood or paper.

At the Yoshida main house, a ridge tablet yields a carpenter's name rather than a year.

Here letters cut into an iron fitting give the year. The ironwork of a storehouse window, made against fire, also serves as a record.

The Oldest Storehouse Surviving in the Area

The assessment turns on age within an area.

The Agency records that it is the oldest of the storehouses that survive in the area.

The city lists, among the components of one brewery's buildings within a group of sake breweries, buildings and stores from the early Meiji to the early Showa years, a well, the site of a main house, and this storehouse of 1836.

In that list, this storehouse alone belongs to the Edo period; all the rest are Meiji or later.

The former Soka school is called among the earliest in its prefecture, and the former Yamanaka main house a survival within its city.

Here the compass is the area, and the storehouse is called the oldest of those that remain.

A National Registration and a Part of a Municipal Historic Site

One building falls within both national and municipal heritage systems.

The state has entered this storehouse as one building on the register of tangible cultural properties.

The city lists it as one of the components of a brewery's buildings within the group of sake breweries that is a municipal historic site.

Nationally it is treated as a building in its own right; municipally, as part of a group of breweries.

The name Kojimaya is a trading name, different from that of the brewery listed alongside it. The building's name keeps a trading name other than that of its present setting.

At the Ota power station, the name shows the present operator and a crest on the gable shows the builder. Here the name itself keeps another trading name.

Visiting

The storehouse stands at 708-2 Saijo-honmachi, Higashihiroshima City, Hiroshima Prefecture.

The Agency places it at the centre of Saijo, where sake breweries gather.

It is earthen and two-storeyed, with a separately framed roof of pantiles set on top; its outer walls have tall vertical boarding on a stone base, with lime plaster above. A separately framed roof of this kind is built apart and set upon the body of the store.

The Agency closes that it is a store that gives Saijo its character. It is a small store of 28 square metres.

It belongs among a brewery's buildings, so whether and how it may be visited follows the owner's arrangements. Check before travelling.