Moriyama Family Residence Stone Storehouse

About the Moriyama Family Residence Stone Storehouse

The Moriyama Family Residence Stone Storehouse (森山家住宅石倉, Moriyama-ke Jūtaku Ishigura) is a timber-framed stone warehouse built around 1916 in Nakano, Yokogawa-chō, Kirishima City, Kagoshima Prefecture, and it was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on July 12, 2005. The Agency for Cultural Affairs reads the name ishigura; Kirishima City's guide to its cultural properties gives ishikura.

The Moriyama Family Residence Stone Storehouse stands at the back of the premises of its owner, Moriyama Co., Ltd., in the Suwa area of Nakano, near Ōsumi-Yokogawa Station in the center of the town. A separate group of registered buildings with a similar name, the Moriyama Family Residence in Kajiki, Aira City, has a different location and owner. No source we checked connects the two.

How the Stone Storehouse Is Built

The Moriyama storehouse runs east to west under a gabled Kirizuma-zukuri roof of Sangawara-buki pantiles, with its entrances on the long side, the arrangement called Hirairi. The Agency's database records it as a two-storey timber-framed stone building with a footprint of 153 square meters, and its description speaks of a mezzanine floor inside.

In a timber-framed stone building, wooden posts and beams form the skeleton and cut-stone walls wrap around the outside. The stone protects the goods from fire and damp, while the wooden frame inside carries the floors and the roof.

The building measures 9 ken by 4 ken. Taking 1 ken as about 1.8 meters, that is roughly 16 meters long and 7 meters deep. The Agency reads its size as a sign of how well the merchant house prospered, and registered it as a model of architectural form.

What to Look For

The south side is the face of the Moriyama Family Residence Stone Storehouse. A lean-to Geya roof runs along it, and beneath it two arched doorways open into the stone wall. That pair of arches gives the building its character.

At the west end of the lean-to, stone walls enclose a small storeroom of its own. Adding stone-walled storage even under the eaves suggests a business with plenty of goods to keep.

On the same day as the Moriyama Family Residence Stone Storehouse, July 12, 2005, the main house and stone storehouse of the Ikeda Family Residence in the same district of Nakano were also registered. The Ikeda storehouse is also built of stone around a timber frame.

Visiting the Moriyama Family Residence Stone Storehouse

The Moriyama Family Residence Stone Storehouse belongs to a company, and no information on public opening could be found, so the interior should be treated as closed. Because the storehouse stands at the back of the premises, it may be only partly visible from the street. Please stay off the property and take photographs only from the public road.

The nearest station is Ōsumi-Yokogawa on the JR Hisatsu Line. The registered address lies about 300 meters southwest of the station in a straight line, a walk of a few minutes. (Checked October 2026.)