Kurosawa Jisuke Shoten

Kurosawa Jisuke Shoten at a Glance

Kurosawa Jisuke Shoten (黒沢治助商店, Kurosawa Jisuke Shōten) is a merchant house compound of the late Taisho to early Showa periods on a street in Fukuoka, Ninohe City, Iwate Prefecture, where eight structures (the store, main house, connecting corridor, No. 1 and No. 2 storehouses, grain storehouse, warehouse, gate and stone wall, and fire wall) were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on 2 November 2009.

The eight carry consecutive registration numbers, 03-0074 to 03-0081. Sources disagree on how to read the name. The Agency for Cultural Affairs database and Cultural Heritage Online give Kurosawa Chisuke, while the company of the same name, which still has its head office at 6 Nakamachi, is registered as Kurosawa Jisuke and writes the surname with the older character 澤. This site follows the company registration and uses Kurosawa Jisuke Shoten.

A Fortune Built on Forests and Timber

Iwate Prefecture's online cultural encyclopedia describes Kurosawa Jisuke Shoten as a business that Jisuke built into a major merchant house within his own lifetime. He managed forest land, traded in the timber it produced, and did especially well selling railway sleepers and charcoal, both in heavy demand at the time.

The buildings went up in stages. The dates recorded by the Agency for Cultural Affairs put the store, main house, corridor, and gate and stone wall in the late Taisho period; the No. 1 and No. 2 storehouses in 1918 and 1931; and the grain storehouse and warehouse in the early Showa period. The brick fire wall is dated to the late Taisho period with work around 1945. The paired storehouses were refurbished in 1968, and the grain storehouse and warehouse were also altered in later Showa years.

The result is a property where a traditional timber shopfront stands beside storehouses finished in black and white lime plaster, a warehouse faced in washed artificial stone with iron doors, and walls of red brick. Old plastering craft and the new materials of the 1920s and 1930s share one plot.

How the Compound Is Laid Out

The Kurosawa Jisuke Shoten plot is a long, narrow strip running east from the street. Piecing together the Agency's descriptions gives this arrangement.

The store fills the west end, facing the street, with a granite gate and low stone wall in front of it along the roadside. South of the store, toward the front of the plot, runs the 23-metre warehouse. A connecting corridor leads from the store to the main house, which sits in the middle of the plot's north side. Southeast of the main house stand the No. 1 and No. 2 storehouses, with the grain storehouse beyond them to the east. Brick fire walls line the front part of the north and south boundaries.

• Store: late Taisho, 2-storey timber building, 100 square metres, with reception rooms of 15 and 20 tatami mats upstairs
• Connecting corridor: late Taisho, single-storey, 21 square metres, linking the store and main house
• Main house: late Taisho, single-storey, 119 square metres, with thick plastered walls
• No. 1 and No. 2 storehouses: 1918 and 1931, 2-storey dozo-zukuri, 175 square metres
• Grain storehouse: early Showa, 2-storey timber store, 93 square metres, used for grain and other food
• Warehouse: early Showa, 2-storey timber building, 129 square metres, walls in washed artificial stone
• Gate and stone wall: late Taisho, granite; gate opening 3.6 metres, wall 7.2 metres long
• Fire wall: late Taisho and around 1945, brick, 45 metres in total

Business at the front, family life in the middle, stored wealth and food at the back. The store and the paired storehouses were registered as structures that would be difficult to reproduce; the other six for their contribution to the historic landscape.

Visiting Kurosawa Jisuke Shoten

Kurosawa Jisuke Shoten stands on private land that is still the registered head office of the family company, and no public opening or visitor reception has been announced (checked 29 September 2026). What you can see is the exterior from the street.

From the road you can take in the store, the gate and stone wall, the warehouse to the south, and the brick fire walls at the front of the plot. The main house, corridor and storehouses are set well back and are hard to see as a whole. There is no published policy on photography, so keep to pictures from the public road and do not step inside the gate.

The nearest station is Ninohe, served by the Tohoku Shinkansen and the IGR Iwate Galaxy Railway. The compound is about 2 kilometres northeast of the station in a straight line, in the Fukuoka district of the town, roughly a 30-minute walk. If you take a local bus, the Shimo-Nakamachi stop is close by. No visitor parking is provided.