Nagaoki Storehouse

The Last Shipping Agent's Storehouse on the Kakehashi

Nagaoki Storehouse (長沖蔵) is a shipping agent's storehouse of the late Edo period in Ataka-machi, Komatsu City, Ishikawa Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) on November 17, 2015 (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Kura simply means storehouse; it belongs to the restaurant Nagaoki.

The Agency records a two-storey Dozo-zukuri building with a tiled roof and a building area of 89 square metres, altered in about 1945; registration number 17-0253.

The Seto Family's Store for Ship Gear

Nagaoki Storehouse was built by the Seto family, who ran a shipping business at Ataka from the end of the Edo period into the Meiji era, and is said to date from the late Edo period (Komatsu City). It held the family's ship gear; after the business closed it fell out of use, and Nagaoki bought it between 1935 and 1944 and has used it as a tool shed.

Nagaoki Storehouse stands outside the restaurant grounds, southeast of the Ataka Sumiyoshi Shrine car park (Komatsu City).

Why It Was Registered

The Agency registered Nagaoki Storehouse for its contribution to the historic landscape, as a rare survival near the riverbank that recalls Ataka port in the days when it prospered on the kitamaebune trade.

According to Komatsu City, many shipping agents' storehouses are said to have lined the left bank of the Kakehashi River, but they were pulled down one after another as the trade declined, and Nagaoki Storehouse is the only one left. When Komatsu joined the Japan Heritage story of kitamaebune ports and shipowners' villages in 2018, Ishikawa Prefecture listed it, with Nagaoki Kongo, among the city's related properties.

What to Look For

The outer walls of Nagaoki Storehouse are clad in vertical boards over a backing of stone slabs (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Komatsu City notes that stone-lined walls are a common local technique and that the stone appears to come from Takigahara in Komatsu.

Inside, an earthen wall divides the storehouse into left and right halves, each with its own doorway (Komatsu City). It was single-storey when built; the upper floor was laid in about 1945. The lean-to roof in front of the doors is a later addition, so look past it to the board-clad walls of the original store.

Visiting

Nagaoki Storehouse has been used as Nagaoki's tool shed, and no official information on interior access was found (Komatsu City). It stands southeast of the Ataka Sumiyoshi Shrine car park; view the exterior without entering the property.