Registered for a Reason the Others Were Not
The Takai Family Residence Storehouse 2 (高井家住宅土蔵二, Takai-ke Jūtaku Dozō Ni) is a plastered storehouse at 127 Yokoo, Hōjōchō, in Kasai City, Hyogo Prefecture, dating from the early Meiji era and listed as a national Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 2 March 2006. It adjoins the east flank of the main house, measures three and a half ken by two, and covers 27 square metres over two storeys.
Three buildings on this property carry registration numbers issued the same day. Two of them, the main house and Storehouse 1, were registered under the criterion for structures contributing to the historic character of the national landscape. This one was not.
Storehouse 2 was registered under a different clause: saigen suru koto ga yōi de nai mono, structures that would not be easy to reproduce. The Agency for Cultural Affairs record says why in a single phrase. The roof, it notes, is framed by setting purlins on beams that carry a mukuri, an upward convex curve, and it calls the resulting structure rare.
What a Mukuri Beam Actually Means
Japanese roof profiles are conventionally described by two opposite curves. Sori is the concave sweep familiar from temple eaves, rising at the corners. Mukuri is its inverse, a gentle swell that bows the roof plane outward, most often seen in the sukiya tradition and in the roofs of high-grade townhouses in Kyoto.
The usual way to obtain that swell is at the surface. Battens and boarding are shimmed so that the tile plane curves while the beams beneath stay straight, which is cheaper and forgiving of error. Here the curve is in the beams themselves. Timbers were selected or worked to a convex line, purlins set along them, and the roof plane follows the structure rather than being coaxed into shape on top of it.
Doing it this way is unforgiving. Every purlin seat sits at a slightly different height and angle, the geometry has to be resolved before the frame goes up, and a mistake is not something you shim out afterwards. That is the sense in which the building is hard to reproduce. The knowledge was in the hands of particular carpenters working in a particular decade, and it does not survive in a drawing.
The curve is subtle from the street, and it helps to know what you are looking for. Track the ridge line against the horizon and let your eye run down the tile plane toward the eaves. It swells rather than dips.
Walls, Door and Position
The building is dozō-zukuri, thick earthen walls finished in lime plaster, two storeys, with a gabled roof of hongawara tiles and the entrance on the long side. Part of the exterior wall is faced in boarding rather than left as bare plaster, a mixed treatment that shows where wear and weather bore down hardest.
Its doorway opens behind the doma of the main house, the earth-floored passage that runs from the highway through to the rear of the dwelling. That single detail tells you how the building was used. Goods came off the road, down the doma, and into the storehouse without ever crossing a raised floor. Storehouse 1, on the west side, was reached by a covered corridor and held tools. This larger eastern building sat at the working end of the household.
The Takai property as a whole was designated an Important Landscape Building by Hyogo Prefecture in 2009, the first such case in Kasai City, and Yokoo falls inside a prefectural historic landscape district. Those measures cover the ensemble, which is why the three buildings are best understood together even though each holds its own registration number.
Visiting Yokoo
The storehouse belongs to a private residence and is not open. No admission is charged, no hours are published, and there is nothing to book. Photographing the exterior from the public road is unrestricted, and the road is a narrow working street, so keep off the property line and out of the traffic.
Hōjōmachi Station on the Hōjō Railway is about ten minutes away on foot to the southwest. Services from Aō Station take some twenty-three minutes and run roughly hourly, which is worth checking before you plan a tight connection.
Hōjō itself repays half a day. The town grew as the approach to Sumiyoshi Shrine, founded by tradition in 717, and Sagami-ji, said to have been established in 745 by the monk Gyōki. The shrine's three main halls and worship hall were designated Important Cultural Properties in December 2022, and Sagami-ji keeps a pagoda of 1662 whose upper roof is cypress bark and lower roof tile. On the first weekend of April the shrine holds the Hōjō Sekku Matsuri, counted among the three great festivals of Harima, when fifteen decorated floats move through these streets and the Ryūō-mai is performed.
- 📍 Plan Your Visit to Hyogo
- Find tours, activities & transport passes near Takai Family Residence Storehouse 2
- [ Himeji Castle & Kobe Night View Cruise ]
Q&A
- Why was the Takai Family Residence Storehouse 2 registered under a different criterion from the other two buildings?
- Because of its roof structure. The main house and Storehouse 1 were registered for contributing to the historic landscape. Storehouse 2 was registered as a structure not easy to reproduce, on the grounds that purlins are set on beams shaped to a mukuri convex curve, which the national record describes as a rare construction.
- Can I visit the interior of the Takai Family Residence Storehouse 2?
- No. The building is part of a private residence and the interior is closed to visitors. There is no reception, no fee and no published opening time. The exterior is visible from the public road at any hour.
- How big is the Takai Family Residence Storehouse 2, and when was it built?
- It measures three and a half ken along the front by two ken deep, with a footprint of 27 square metres over two storeys. The national database dates it to the early Meiji era, a bracket of 1868 to 1911, without narrowing to a single year. Its registration number is 28-0240.
- Where exactly does the Takai Family Residence Storehouse 2 stand on the property?
- On the east side, attached to the main house, with its doorway opening behind the earth-floored doma passage. Storehouse 1 stands on the opposite side, west of the house and hard against the old highway.
- How do I get to the Takai Family Residence Storehouse 2 from Osaka or Kobe?
- Travel to Aō Station, reachable via the JR Kakogawa Line or the Kōbe Electric Railway Ao Line, then take the Hōjō Railway about twenty-three minutes to its terminus at Hōjōmachi. From there Yokoo is roughly ten minutes on foot to the northeast. Bicycles can be hired at the tourist information centre beside the station.
Basic Information
| Name | Takai Family Residence Storehouse 2 (高井家住宅土蔵二) |
|---|---|
| Location | 127 Yokoo, Hōjōchō, Kasai City, Hyogo Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure), registration number 28-0240; criterion: not easily reproduced |
| Year Designated | Registered 2 March 2006; gazetted 23 March 2006 |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | 3.5 ken by 2 ken; two storeys; building footprint 27 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 2
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00005330
- 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 City: list of designated cultural properties
- https://www.city.kasai.hyogo.jp/site/kyoiku/1647.html
- Kita-Harima tourism portal: Sumiyoshi Shrine and the Hōjō Sekku Matsuri
- https://www.kita-harima.jp/spot/320/
Last verified: 2026.08.26