Aizen Family Residence East Storehouse

The Storehouse on the Street Front

The Aizen Family Residence East Storehouse (愛染家住宅東蔵, Aizen-ke Jūtaku Higashigura) is a two-storey Dozo-zukuri clay-walled storehouse of about 1931 standing south of the Aizen family townhouse in Higashihaze-chō, Takamatsu City, Kagawa Prefecture, and it was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 12 July 2005.

It was built to hold sake. The Aizen Family Residence East Storehouse is compact, 3 bays by 2 bays with a building area of 23 square metres, and its ridge runs east to west along the south side of the property.

Why It Was Registered: Part of the Konpira Road Frontage

The Aizen Family Residence East Storehouse was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape. The Agency for Cultural Affairs treats it as one of the elements that make up the property's frontage on the Konpira Kaidō.

Along the road, the main house presents its black-plastered upper floor, and just to the south the East Storehouse shows its white walls. House and storehouse read as one continuous street front, and that is the point of the registration.

What to Look For: High Namako Walls and a Plaster Band

The Aizen Family Residence East Storehouse has a gabled Kirizuma-zukuri roof of Sangawara-buki pantiles and is entered from a long side, the Hirairi arrangement. The doorway is at the east end of the north wall, sheltered by a small Hisashi eave. The door faces north, toward the main house, rather than onto the road.

The walls are the thing to study. The lower part is Namako-kabe: flat tiles set diagonally in a grid, with the joints built up into rounded ridges of plaster. Here the tiling rises high up the wall. Above it the wall is finished in white Shikkui plaster, and under the eaves runs a Hachimaki, a thickened band that strengthens fire protection where roof meets wall.

Grid tiling, plain white and the eaves band stack up in three clear layers even on so small a building. The West Storehouse beside it is finished the same way, and the two make a matching pair.

Viewing the East Storehouse

The Aizen Family Residence East Storehouse stands on private land and its interior is not open. As part of the street frontage, its exterior can be seen from the road.

The raised plaster joints of the namako tiling are easiest to appreciate from close by, but please stay on the public road and do not step onto the property.