A Fifteen-Square-Metre Storehouse on the Highway
The Takai Family Residence Storehouse 1 (高井家住宅土蔵一, Takai-ke Jūtaku Dozō Ichi) is a plaster-walled storehouse at 127 Yokoo, Hōjōchō, in Kasai City, Hyogo Prefecture, built in the early Meiji era and listed as a national Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 2 March 2006. It stands west of the main house, directly on the old highway frontage, and measures two ken by two ken with a footprint of just 15 square metres.
Fifteen square metres is smaller than a modern single garage. Most storehouses of this era on merchant properties were built behind the house, out of sight, sized to hold a family's rice, textiles and lacquerware. This one was put on the street.
That decision is the reason it is worth a paragraph of attention rather than a passing glance.
The Floating Roof
The roof here is built in okiyane form, literally a placed roof. Instead of resting the tiles directly on the thick earthen shell of the storehouse, the carpenter frames a separate roof structure and sets it over the top, leaving a cavity between the two.
The reason is moisture, and the logic runs in both directions. Rain and summer heat strike the outer roof, not the earthen wall crown, so the clay stays dry and the tiles can be replaced without disturbing the plaster below. Air moving through the gap carries away the humidity that would otherwise condense inside a sealed box. A dozō is essentially a thick clay vessel, slow to warm and slow to cool, and the cavity roof is what keeps that thermal mass from becoming a sweating one.
Inside, the roof frame uses nobari, rafter beams that climb at the pitch of the roof rather than spanning level from wall to wall. On a two-ken square plan this yields useful headroom in the upper storey without a heavy horizontal tie cutting across it. The interior is boarded, and the building has served as a dōgu-gura, a tool store, rather than a treasure store.
Details Worth Noticing from the Road
Look at the wall surface first. The lower portion is faced with koshi-ita, protective boarding, and here the boarding is carried noticeably higher than the usual waist height. Above it the wall is finished in white lime plaster. Boarding takes the splash from the road, the knocks from carts and the rot that starts at ground level; plaster above takes the fire. Raising the boundary between them was a practical response to a building standing at the very edge of a working highway.
Then look at the tiles. The storehouse carries hongawara, the older paired system of broad flat pans and semi-cylindrical covers, while the main house next door is roofed in lighter sangawara pantiles. The heavier, more expensive tile went on the smaller building. That inversion was not carelessness. A storehouse held what a merchant family could not replace, and its roof was specified accordingly.
A covered corridor links the storehouse to the main house, so the family could reach their tools without stepping onto the road in the rain. The gable faces the ends and the entrance is on the long side, the same hirairi orientation the main house uses.
Seeing It, and What Lies Around
The storehouse is part of a private residence and the interior is not open to visitors. There is no admission, no gate and no opening hours, and everything described above can be read from the public road. You may photograph the exterior from the road without restriction; the pavement is narrow, so a tripod is a poor idea.
Getting here is straightforward. Hōjōmachi Station is the northern terminus of the Hōjō Railway, a single-track local line running twenty-three minutes up from Aō Station, where the JR Kakogawa Line and the Kōbe Electric Railway Ao Line meet. From the station platform the Yokoo district is about ten minutes on foot to the northeast. Three intermediate stations on the same line, Hokkeguchi, Harima-Shimozato and Osa, keep their Taishō-era timber station buildings, and those too are Registered Tangible Cultural Properties, which makes the approach part of the visit.
Kasai City's tourism association maps a five-kilometre walking loop from the station that runs through the old post town, past Sagami-ji and Sumiyoshi Shrine, out to the Gohyaku Rakan stone arhats and back along this stretch of the Yokoo Kaidō. Allow about an hour and three quarters at an easy pace.
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Q&A
- Can I go inside the Takai Family Residence Storehouse 1?
- No. It forms part of a private residence and the interior is not open. There is no ticket office and no published visiting hours. The exterior can be seen from the public road at any time, and the features that earned the registration are all external.
- When was the Takai Family Residence Storehouse 1 built?
- The national database records it as early Meiji, giving a bracket of 1868 to 1911, without a single construction year. It is therefore later than the main house, which is dated to 1851. The storehouse was registered on 2 March 2006 and gazetted on 23 March that year, under registration number 28-0239.
- What is the okiyane roof on the Takai Family Residence Storehouse 1?
- It is a roof framed separately and placed over the earthen shell rather than bearing on it, leaving an air cavity between the two. The gap protects the clay from rain and heat, lets humidity escape, and allows the tiles to be re-laid without touching the plaster walls.
- How do I reach the Takai Family Residence Storehouse 1?
- Ride the Hōjō Railway to Hōjōmachi Station and walk about ten minutes northeast. Trains take roughly twenty-three minutes from Aō Station and run about once an hour, so check the timetable before you set out. The tourist information centre next to the station rents bicycles if you would rather cycle the old town.
- How does the Takai Family Residence Storehouse 1 differ from Storehouse 2?
- Storehouse 1 is the smaller of the pair at 15 square metres, sits west of the main house on the highway frontage, uses an okiyane floating roof, and was registered for contributing to the historic landscape. Storehouse 2 covers 27 square metres, attaches to the east side of the house, and was registered under a different criterion, for being difficult to reproduce.
Basic Information
| Name | Takai Family Residence Storehouse 1 (高井家住宅土蔵一) |
|---|---|
| Location | 127 Yokoo, Hōjōchō, Kasai City, Hyogo Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure), registration number 28-0239 |
| Year Designated | Registered 2 March 2006; gazetted 23 March 2006 |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | 2 ken by 2 ken; two storeys; building footprint 15 m² |
| Owner | Private (not published in the national database) |
| Public Access | Interior closed; exterior visible from the public road |
References
- National Cultural Properties Database, Agency for Cultural Affairs: Takai Family Residence Storehouse 1
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00005329
- Cultural Heritage Online: Takai Family Residence Storehouse 1
- https://online.bunka.go.jp/heritages/detail/118407
- Agency for Cultural Affairs: the Registered Tangible Cultural Property system (structures)
- https://www.bunka.go.jp/seisaku/bunkazai/shokai/yukei_kenzobutsu/toroku_yukei.html
- Kasai Kankō Navi: Hōjō-no-shuku Walking Course
- https://kanko-kasai.com/model_course/北条の宿散策コース/
Last verified: 2026.08.26