Motooka Family Residence West Storehouse

About the Motooka Family Residence West Storehouse

The Motooka Family Residence West Storehouse (本岡家住宅西蔵, Motooka-ke Jūtaku Nishigura) is a two-storey Dozo-zukuri earthen storehouse in Motomachi 2-chome, Kanazawa City, Ishikawa Prefecture, built in 1872, and it became a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on March 27, 2006.

It measures 3.5 ken by 2 ken (Ketayuki and Harima, counted in the traditional Ken unit), with a footprint of 28 square meters, and stands near the southern boundary of the plot, just south of the main house. Of the four registered structures on the site, it is the oldest.

The date matters. The west storehouse is ten years older than the main house, which was built in 1882, and thirty years older than the main house's move in 1902. In this household, the storehouse has the longer history of the two.

A Storehouse That Shapes the Street

The Motooka Family Residence West Storehouse was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape. The Agency for Cultural Affairs closes its description by noting that the building helps form the landscape of both the plot and the street.

Set hard against the southern boundary, its walls become part of the outer face of the property. On the inside it is tied to the main house; on the outside it adds to the view from the road. One small building does both jobs.

Cut-Stone Footings and a Stone-Faced Base

The Motooka Family Residence West Storehouse has a Kirizuma-zukuri gabled roof of Sangawara-buki pantiles, built as an Okiyane: a separately framed roof set on top of the clay-walled body of the store.

It stands on footings of cut stone, and the lower band of the wall, the koshi, is faced with stone. Above that, the walls are rendered in mortar and given an artificial-stone finish, a technique in which cement mixed with crushed stone is applied so that the surface resembles natural stone. The Agency does not say when this finish was applied.

The doorway opens toward the main house, and a corridor joins the two. You could walk from the house into the store along the corridor, which suggests a storehouse closely tied to daily life in the household.

Viewing the Motooka Family Residence West Storehouse

The Motooka Family Residence West Storehouse is part of a private home, and no opening of the interior, regular or special, could be found.

As the Agency's remark about the street suggests, the storehouse stands near the southern boundary, where its walls are likely to be visible from outside the plot. The doorway and corridor face the main house and cannot really be seen from outside. Please take photographs from the public road and keep clear of the household.