A Stone Storehouse Across the Highway
Hasegawa Residence Stone Storehouse (長谷川家住宅石蔵, Hasegawa-ke Jūtaku Ishigura, also written Hasegawake Jutaku Ishigura) is a storehouse in the Kozu district of Odawara, Kanagawa Prefecture, built in 1916 and listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (登録有形文化財) on 9 June 2004. It is a two-storey structure of timber-framed stone with a tiled roof, covering 41 square metres, and stands near the old Tokaido highway, now National Route 1. Odawara's cultural properties office places it directly opposite the Hasegawa family's shop and main house, on the far side of the road.
Forty-one square metres is small for a registered property. Two floors on a footprint about the size of a modest garage, built to hold goods and household stores rather than to impress anyone. Two doorways open on the western wall at ground level, and the interior divides into two rooms. The roof is a simple gable in sangawara pantiles. Ornament is essentially absent.
The building earned its listing through how it was made, and through the marks left on it by an earthquake.
Dated by an Old Photograph
The Agency for Cultural Affairs records that the construction year of 1916 is known from an old photograph. Not from a ridgepole tablet, not from ink inscriptions on a beam, but from a picture.
For small private buildings of the modern period, this is often the practical route. A storehouse rarely warranted formal documentation, yet families and neighbourhoods photographed their surroundings, and those images sometimes carry a date. Match the building in the frame against the building standing today and the construction year settles. Without that photograph, this storehouse would probably still be catalogued with a vague span of "Taisho to early Showa."
The date carries weight for another reason. Nineteen sixteen falls seven years before the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, which means this building lived through the disaster. Its counterpart across the road, the shop and main house of 1927, was built afterwards. Two structures of one family, one road apart, sitting on either side of the same event.
Timber Frame, Stone Skin
Mokkotsu sekizo, the construction described in the listing, raises a timber skeleton and fills or clads it with coursed stone. The stone gives fire resistance, which is the whole point of a Japanese storehouse; the timber frame keeps the work quicker and simpler than full masonry, and lets doors and windows be framed in wood. Builders across Japan used the method for storehouses, workshops and factories from the Meiji years into the Taisho period, particularly where good building stone lay close at hand.
The method carries a known weakness. Timber and stone differ in weight, stiffness and how they move, so the joints between them concentrate stress. An earthquake finds those joints. In September 1923 the rupture beneath Sagami Bay put Odawara through violent shaking, and that this storehouse remained standing afterwards is itself a comment on the quality of the original work.
Iron Bands and Visible Repair
What catches the eye here are the flat iron bands running horizontally around the walls. The national heritage database identifies them as reinforcing bands installed after the 1923 earthquake, and describes them as giving the exterior its character.
Their function is straightforward. Wrapped around the outside, the bands grip the stonework and stop courses from bulging outward or shedding under lateral movement. The logic is the same one behind steel jacketing on modern concrete columns. In the aftermath of a disaster, when money and labour were both scarce, it was a cheap intervention with a real return.
What stands out is that nobody hid the work. The bands were left exposed on the wall face, drawing dark horizontal lines across grey stone. An addition made under duress became the element that defines how the building looks.
That is where the heritage value sits. Damage, repair, continued use: the whole sequence stayed on the surface of the wall instead of disappearing into a file of drawings. Buildings restored to look untouched lose that record. This one kept it, and a visitor standing on the pavement can read the sequence without knowing a word of the documentation.
Why a Small Storehouse Gets Listed
The storehouse carries registration number 14-0084 and belongs to the 42nd round of registrations, listed on 9 June 2004 and gazetted on the 24th. The criterion applied was that it contributes to the historical landscape of the country.
Registration differs from designation, and the two are easy to confuse. National Treasures and Important Cultural Properties are designated, and altering them requires state permission. Registration, introduced in 1996, runs on notification instead, and assumes the owner will go on using the building. It exists to catch the modern buildings that shape a place without any one of them being extraordinary: storehouses, workshops, the outbuildings behind a shop front.
A 41-square-metre storehouse holding national listing is the clearest possible statement of what the system is for.
Visiting
The storehouse is privately owned and the interior is closed. Viewing means the exterior from the public road. The stone coursing, the joints and the rust on the iron bands all read clearly from the pavement, so little is lost, but please do not enter the site.
From JR Kozu Station on the Tokaido Main Line it is about a five-minute walk west along National Route 1. The address is 3-2-25 Kozu, Odawara. The Hasegawa Residence Shop and Main House sits opposite at 3-13-4, registered on the same day, less than a minute away on foot, and most visitors sensibly see the two together.
Photography from the road is fine. Route 1 carries heavy traffic here, so watch your footing and stay well clear of the carriageway. Depending on how the building sits relative to the road, the two western doorways may be awkward to see.
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Q&A
- Where is the Hasegawa Residence Stone Storehouse, and how does it relate to the Hasegawa Residence Shop and Main House?
- It stands at 3-2-25 Kozu, Odawara, Kanagawa Prefecture, directly across National Route 1 from the shop and main house at 3-13-4. The two are less than a minute apart on foot and were registered together on 9 June 2004.
- Can visitors go inside the Hasegawa Residence Stone Storehouse?
- No. The building is privately owned and closed to the public. Viewing is limited to the exterior from the public road, and visitors should not enter the property.
- What is the mokkotsu sekizo construction used at the Hasegawa Residence Stone Storehouse?
- It is timber-framed stone construction: a wooden skeleton clad or infilled with coursed stone. The stone provides fire resistance while the frame simplifies building, and the method was common for storehouses and workshops from the Meiji into the Taisho period. This building is two storeys with a footprint of 41 square metres.
- What are the iron bands on the walls of the Hasegawa Residence Stone Storehouse?
- They are reinforcing bands fitted after the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, wrapped around the exterior to hold the stonework together. They were left exposed rather than concealed, and the Agency for Cultural Affairs notes that they give the building its exterior character.
- When was the Hasegawa Residence Stone Storehouse built, and how was the date established?
- It was built in 1916. The Agency for Cultural Affairs records that the date is known from an old photograph rather than from any inscription or tablet inside the building.
Basic Information
| Name | Hasegawa Residence Stone Storehouse (長谷川家住宅石蔵) |
|---|---|
| Location | 3-2-25 Kozu, Odawara, Kanagawa Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure); registration no. 14-0084; 42nd round; criterion: contributes to the historical landscape of the nation |
| Year Designated | Registered 9 June 2004; gazetted 24 June 2004 |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Two-storey timber-framed stone construction, tiled roof, building area 41 sq m; gabled roof with sangawara pantiles |
| Owner | Private (no owner name listed in the Agency for Cultural Affairs database) |
| Public Access | Closed to the public; exterior visible from the public road |
References
- Database of National Cultural Properties, Agency for Cultural Affairs: Hasegawa Residence Stone Storehouse
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00004128
- Cultural Heritage Online: Hasegawa Residence Stone Storehouse
- https://online.bunka.go.jp/heritages/detail/139898
- Odawara City: Registered Tangible Cultural Property, Hasegawa Residence Stone Storehouse
- https://www.city.odawara.kanagawa.jp/field/lifelong/property/tourokubunkazai/kenzoubutsu/tourokuhasegwaishigura.html
- Agency for Cultural Affairs: Tangible Cultural Properties (Structures)
- https://www.bunka.go.jp/seisaku/bunkazai/shokai/yukei_kenzobutsu/
Last verified: 2026.08.13