Zorokuen Storehouse 3 (Kitamae Ship Owner's Residence, Former Sakaya Choichiro Family Residence)

At the north end of the storehouse row

Zorokuen Storehouse 3 is a two-storey earthen-walled storehouse in Hashitatemachi, Kaga City, Ishikawa Prefecture, built in 1890 and listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 17 February 1999.

It covers 26 square metres. Zorokuen Storehouse 3 marks the northern end of the row of storehouses that faces the main house from across the road. It rests on a foundation of dressed stone laid up against the street, and a roofed forecourt on the south gable shelters the doorway.

Household goods were kept here. Nothing about the contents was special, unlike the miso store or the document store, and that is precisely why the building is useful: it shows the ordinary form of a storehouse on this estate without complications.

The value of being ordinary

The criterion was contribution to the historic landscape. The Agency for Cultural Affairs calls the exterior of Zorokuen Storehouse 3 a standard example, which in this context is not a criticism.

Kaga Hashitate kept the houses of ship owners and captains built between the late Edo and mid Meiji periods on the profits of the Kitamae-bune trade, and the village was selected as a national Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings on 27 December 2005. Pale blue-green Shakudani stone in the walls and steps, storehouses and outbuildings set around each residence: that picture depends on buildings like this one holding their place in the line.

Dressed stone below, a sheltered door to the south

Start at the base. On the street side the wall of dressed stone lifts the building clear of the ground, which matters in a district of heavy rain and snow, and it matters most for the storehouses closest to the road.

Round on the south gable, a projecting eave forms the forecourt where goods were moved in and out without the doors taking the weather. Above the boarding, only the eaves band is plastered. Walking the row of Zorokuen Storehouse 3, Storehouse 4 and Storehouse 5 from north to south, the treatment changes building by building.

Seeing Storehouse 3

Zorokuen Storehouse 3 stands against the road opposite the main house, so the exterior can be seen from the street without an admission ticket.

No primary source confirms whether the interior is open. Ask about that and about photography before visiting. Opening hours and the route from Kaga Onsen Station are on the Zorokuen estate page.