A Casters' Storehouse in Kajiki
Moriyama House Storehouse (森山家住宅土蔵, Moriyama-ke Jūtaku Dozō) is a storehouse of 1904 in Asahimachi, Kajiki, Aira City, Kagoshima Prefecture, entered on the national register of Tangible Cultural Properties on 25 June 2002. It belonged to a family of iron casters who supplied the Satsuma domain, and it is the earliest of three buildings on the property to reach the register.
The building runs about 17 metres along its length and about 5 metres across, covering 83 square metres over two floors under a tiled roof. Its construction is unusual enough that the official record needs two terms for it: stone below, dozō above, meaning the thick earthen-walled and plastered construction used for Japanese fireproof storehouses. Stone piers carry the lower body, and above them posts set at half-ken intervals frame the plastered upper walls.
The Agency for Cultural Affairs singles out one feature as characteristic: the stone portion is carried higher than the norm. Most storehouses of this kind take stone only to a low base and plaster everything above. Here the masonry climbs, and the proportion of grey stone to white plaster reads quite differently from the usual pattern.
Inside, the space is split north and south into two chambers, with a second floor throughout. Three entrances open on the west and south elevations, and windows are set at several points along the walls.
The Family Who Cast Iron for the Domain
Aira City records the Moriyama family as purveyors to the Satsuma domain, working in Kajiki as imoji, or iron casters, making pots and kettles. Two lines of business give the family its historical weight. In the closing years of the Edo period they took part in casting cannon at the Shūseikan, the industrial complex established by the domain lord Shimazu Nariakira at Iso in Kagoshima. They also made and sold the great pots used to boil down cane juice into brown sugar in Amami and Okinawa, a trade that carried much of the domain's revenue.
Moriyama Isuke, who worked on the cannon casting, had three sons, and each of them ran a foundry under his own mark. The three marks read 山一, 山二 and 山三, literally mountain one, mountain two and mountain three. The property here belonged to the second son's line, and the mark 山二 is written on the roof of the storehouse.
The main house went up in the same year, 1904, and was registered in 2006. A former workshop on the site followed in 2007. In August 2013 all three buildings and the land beneath them were donated to Aira City, which then carried out repairs and opened the complex with exhibition space on the family's history and its connection to the Meiji Restoration.
The workshop carries the most intriguing claim of the three. A local tradition holds that it was assembled from a building moved out of the first-phase Shūseikan, which Shimazu Nariakira founded in 1851. Those original buildings burned in the Anglo-Satsuma War of 1863, and only later reconstructions survive at the Iso site today. Some of the workshop's older posts show surface marks left by an adze, which is consistent with the story. Aira City sets the possibility out plainly as a possibility, noting that if it holds, a piece of a World Heritage industrial site stands in Kajiki. Nothing in the record settles the question.
Registered as Difficult to Reproduce
Registered Tangible Cultural Properties fall under one of three criteria. Most are registered as models of design or as characteristic of a region. This storehouse was registered under the third, covering buildings that are not easily reproduced, and the reason lies in the metalwork.
The eaves are carried on brackets, called mochiokuri in Japanese, and Aira City describes them as work only a caster's household could have produced. The family that made cannon and sugar cauldrons applied the same foundry to the fittings of its own storehouse. Reproducing them today would mean reconstructing a craft tradition rather than copying a shape, which is exactly what the criterion is written to protect.
Kajiki has a stone-building tradition of its own. The old Kajiki local museum complex nearby includes a stone warehouse built from locally quarried Kajiki stone, a tuff, and stone construction of this kind is part of the visual language of the town. The registration record does not identify the source of the stone used here.
Registration is a lighter form of protection than designation as a National Treasure or an Important Cultural Property. Introduced in 1996, it was built for the enormous number of nineteenth and twentieth century buildings that were being lost faster than the designation system could examine them, and it keeps the owner's freedom to repair and use the building largely intact.
Visiting the Storehouse
The exterior can be seen at any time. Interior access needs planning: the buildings open on weekdays from 9:00 to 17:00, and a booking must be made at least two weeks ahead with the Cultural Properties Section of the Social Education Division of the Aira City Board of Education on 0995-66-3752. Dates may need adjusting depending on other bookings.
Booking has a real payoff. A member of city staff or a volunteer history guide meets visitors on site and takes them through the buildings, which for a property of this kind is the difference between looking at walls and understanding what happened inside them. The north chamber of the storehouse displays objects held by the family along with documents on its history, and the former workshop houses panels on the Shūseikan connection and on the commercial history of Kajiki, together with casting moulds and iron slag excavated on the south side of the site.
The main house repays attention while you are there. Aira City notes that Yakusugi cedar, the prized timber of Yakushima, was used generously through the verandas and transoms, that the openwork transoms were made to measure rather than bought ready-made, and that the nail covers in one room were cast by the family itself.
The property sits beside the Kajiki Asahimachi intersection on National Route 10. Parking is available on the south side of the site, with access for microbuses, and the city publishes an approach map. Kajiki Station on the JR Nippō Line is the nearest railway station, and Kagoshima Airport is within about half an hour by road. Aira City has said it intends to move toward fuller opening in the future, so the current booking arrangement may change.
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Q&A
- Where is Moriyama House Storehouse, and how do I get there?
- It stands at 172 Asahimachi, Kajiki, Aira City, Kagoshima Prefecture, beside the Kajiki Asahimachi intersection on National Route 10. There is parking on the south side of the site with microbus access. Kajiki Station on the JR Nippō Line is the nearest station, and Kagoshima Airport is about half an hour away by road.
- Can I go inside Moriyama House Storehouse, and do I need to book?
- The exterior can be viewed at any time. Interior visits run on weekdays from 9:00 to 17:00 and require a booking at least two weeks in advance with the Cultural Properties Section of the Aira City Board of Education on 0995-66-3752. City staff or a volunteer guide will show you round.
- Why was Moriyama House Storehouse registered as a Cultural Property?
- It was registered in 2002 under the criterion for buildings that are difficult to reproduce. The cast brackets supporting the eaves are regarded as work that only a caster's household could have made, and the stone construction carried unusually high up the walls is noted as a distinguishing feature.
- Who were the Moriyama family, and how does Moriyama House Storehouse relate to them?
- They were iron casters in Kajiki and purveyors to the Satsuma domain, making pots and kettles, taking part in cannon casting at the Shūseikan, and supplying the cauldrons used for brown sugar production in Amami and Okinawa. This property belonged to the second son's branch, and the storehouse roof carries its mark, 山二.
- What else stands on the same site as Moriyama House Storehouse?
- The main house of 1904, registered in 2006, and a former workshop registered in 2007. Local tradition holds that the workshop reuses timber from the first-phase Shūseikan, though this remains unproven. All three buildings and the land were donated to Aira City in 2013.
Basic Information
| Name | Moriyama House Storehouse (森山家住宅土蔵) |
|---|---|
| Location | 172 Asahimachi, Kajiki, Aira City, Kagoshima Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure), registration number 46-0011 |
| Year Designated | Registered 25 June 2002 (notified 16 July 2002) |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Stone and dozō construction, two storeys, tiled roof, about 17 by 5 metres, building area 83 square metres |
| Owner | Aira City |
| Public Access | Exterior viewable at any time. Interior on weekdays 9:00 to 17:00, booking required at least two weeks ahead (0995-66-3752) |
References
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, National Cultural Properties Database: Moriyama House Storehouse
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00002870
- Aira City: Moriyama House
- https://www.city.aira.lg.jp/bunkazai/shisetsu/kyoiku/kunitoroku/007.html
- Aira City: Nationally Registered Cultural Properties
- https://www.city.aira.lg.jp/bunkazai/kanko/bunka/bunkazai/kunitoroku.html
- Cultural Heritage Online: Moriyama House Main Building
- https://bunka.nii.ac.jp/heritages/detail/118767
- Kagoshima Cultural Properties Encyclopedia Plus: Moriyama House Storehouse
- https://k-bunkazai.com/cultural/f-q-60010/
Last verified: 2026.08.11