Zorokuen Storehouse 6 (Kitamae Ship Owner's Residence, Former Sakaya Choichiro Family Residence)

Midway along the row

Zorokuen Storehouse 6 is a two-storey earthen-walled storehouse in Hashitatemachi, Kaga City, Ishikawa Prefecture, built during the Taisho era between 1912 and 1925 and listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 17 February 1999.

It covers 36 square metres. Zorokuen Storehouse 6 stands between Storehouse 5 and Storehouses 7 and 8, with its entrance on the road side and the gable toward the street. Household goods were kept here.

The storehouses on this estate fall into two campaigns, one of 1890 and a later group from the Taisho era. This building belongs to the second, slotted into the older line without disturbing it.

Matching, then varying

The criterion was contribution to the historic landscape, and in this case the contribution can be traced in detail.

The general treatment repeats the plainness of its neighbours, but the forecourt is handled differently. Sliding doors face the street, the flanking walls are finished in Shikkui plaster, and below waist height the boarding is held down by battens. The builder gave Zorokuen Storehouse 6 a face of its own without stepping out of the row, and the whole negotiation survives on that one elevation.

Three finishes on one face

There is one elevation worth studying closely. From the top: plastered wall, then the sliding doors of the forecourt, then battened boarding at the base. Three materials and three degrees of effort, stacked within a narrow frontage.

Coming from the closed wall of Storehouse 5, the change in how openings are handled is immediate. The line of stores at Zorokuen looks uniform from a distance; building by building the decisions differ, and Zorokuen Storehouse 6 makes that easiest to see.

Seeing Storehouse 6

The entrance of Zorokuen Storehouse 6 is on the road side, so the exterior, including the forecourt detail, can only be read properly from the street.

No primary source confirms whether the interior is open. Ask about access and photography in advance. Hours and directions for the estate are on the Zorokuen page.