A Storehouse That Recorded Its Own Date
The Hosaka Family Storehouse (保坂家住宅土蔵, Hosaka-ke Jūtaku Dozō, also written Hosakake Jutaku Dozo) is a two-storey earthen-walled storehouse at the east end of the Hosaka residence in the Uramachi quarter of Yuki City (結城市, Yūki), Ibaraki Prefecture, raised in 1922 and placed on the national register of Tangible Cultural Properties on 25 July 2011.
Most small buildings lose their birthdays. This one kept its own, in ink, on a tie beam. Yuki City's survey found an inscription on the naka-hikibari recording the eleventh year of Taisho, the year of the dog, fourth month, with Hosaka Yukichi named as the person who had it built and Nakamura Fusataro as master carpenter. One character in the day of the month is no longer legible. Hosaka Yukichi is also the name recorded for the founder of the Buyu sake brewery across the street in the Keio era of the 1860s, so the name appears to have passed down through successive heads of the household.
The building is small: 20 square metres, 5.5 metres along the ridge line and 3.6 metres across it, which the city's survey expresses in the older measure as three ken by two. It is a bunko-gura, the type of storehouse built for documents and valuables rather than for stock in trade.
Why Twenty Square Metres Were Worth Registering
The Agency for Cultural Affairs cites the criterion covering buildings that contribute to the historic landscape of the country, and lists the storehouse under registration number 08-0242, gazetted in the seventieth round on 25 July 2011. Its neighbour, the single-storey main house, entered the register the same day as number 08-0241, as did five buildings and a brick chimney at the Buyu brewery opposite.
Two things give a building this size its case. The first is the inscription. A dated structure with a named carpenter provides a fixed point against which undated buildings in the same town can be measured, and Yuki has a great many undated buildings. The second is what the storehouse says about the town's relationship with fire. Yuki grew as a commercial centre, and its characteristic building type is the misegura, the plastered shop-storehouse. The vocabulary here belongs to that world: walls finished in shikkui lime plaster, fire shutters at both storeys, and kakeko-nuri doors, whose stepped and plastered rabbets close against the frame tightly enough to keep smoke out.
There is also the matter of composition. The main house next door is one storey and deliberately quiet. The storehouse, heavier and taller, closes it off at the east and gives the street elevation an end. The agency's own description makes this point, and it is visible from the pavement.
Reading the South Gable, and a Door That Never Shut
The agency records the storehouse as tsuma-iri, gable-fronted, with the ridge running north to south, roofed in kirizuma form with sangawara pantiles. On the south gable, copper-sheeted pentroofs shelter the openings at both the ground and upper floors, and kakeko-nuri double doors hang at each. Yuki City's survey describes the building instead as hira-iri, entered from the eaves side, and notes that the working entrance faces west, onto the board-floored passage one ken wide that links the storehouse to the main house. The two accounts are most likely describing different faces of the same small building, the formal south gable in one case and the everyday door in the other, but the discrepancy is real, and the agency's record is the authoritative one.
The city's surveyors noticed something else about that western door. The pair of hinged leaves is undersized for its opening. Their reading is that nobody ever intended to close it, which makes sense for a doorway sheltered inside a covered passage between two buildings of the same household. The fire shutters, by contrast, are set in the centre of the south wall at both levels and were meant in earnest.
One further note on the record. The agency describes the construction as dozo-zukuri, thick earth over a timber frame; the city's summary line calls it timber-framed. These are not competing claims so much as different levels of detail, since every dozo has a wooden skeleton beneath the earth and plaster.
Visiting is straightforward, with one limit. The storehouse belongs to an occupied private house and the interior is not open, so there are no hours, no admission charge, and no way inside. From the public road the south gable is fully visible, and that is the face worth looking at. Photography from the street is fine; the grounds are private. Yuki Station on the JR Mito Line is roughly one kilometre away, about ten minutes on foot from the north exit, and the Buyu brewery opposite runs tours by advance reservation and keeps a shop on site.
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Q&A
- How is the Hosaka Family Storehouse in Yuki dated so precisely?
- By an ink inscription on the naka-hikibari, an interior tie beam. It records the fourth month of the eleventh year of Taisho, that is 1922, together with the name of the household head who commissioned the work and the master carpenter, Nakamura Fusataro. One character giving the day is illegible.
- Can the interior of the Hosaka Family Storehouse be visited?
- No. It stands within an occupied private residence and is not open to the public. Registration as a Tangible Cultural Property carries no obligation to admit visitors. The exterior, particularly the south gable, can be seen from the public road.
- What kind of storehouse is the Hosaka Family Storehouse?
- A bunko-gura, built for documents and household valuables rather than for merchandise. At 20 square metres over two floors it is modest by the standards of Yuki's commercial storehouses, which is consistent with that purpose.
- How do I reach the Hosaka Family Storehouse from Yuki Station?
- Take the north exit of Yuki Station on the JR Mito Line and walk north into the old town for about one kilometre, some ten minutes. The storehouse stands at the east end of the Hosaka main house in Uramachi, opposite the Buyu brewery.
- Which other registered buildings stand near the Hosaka Family Storehouse?
- The Hosaka main house adjoins it to the west. Directly across the street, the Buyu brewery has five registered buildings and a registered brick chimney of about 11 metres. Yuki City lists fifteen registered properties in this quarter, among them Yuki Sake Brewery and the Okujun silk premises.
Basic Information
| Name | Hosaka Family Storehouse (保坂家住宅土蔵) |
|---|---|
| Location | 135 and adjacent, Uramachi, Oaza Yuki, Yuki City, Ibaraki Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure), registration no. 08-0242 |
| Year Designated | 2011 (registered and gazetted 25 July) |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Building area approx. 20 sq m; 5.5 m along the ridge by 3.6 m across, two storeys |
| Owner | Not recorded in the Agency for Cultural Affairs database; privately owned |
| Public Access | Exterior visible from the public road; interior not open |
References
- National Cultural Properties Database, Agency for Cultural Affairs: Hosakake Jutaku Dozo
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00008622
- Yuki City: Hosaka Residence, Registered Tangible Cultural Property
- https://www.city.yuki.lg.jp/kosodate-kyouiku/shougaigakushuu/bunkazai/bunkazai/tourokuyuukei/page003239.html
- Yuki City: Buyu, Registered Tangible Cultural Property
- https://www.city.yuki.lg.jp/kosodate-kyouiku/shougaigakushuu/bunkazai/bunkazai/tourokuyuukei/page003240.html
- Buyu Sake Brewery: brewery tours
- https://buyu.jp/tour/
Last verified: 2026.08.06