Shimanouchi Katsuyuki Family Residence Storehouse

What the Shimanouchi Katsuyuki Family Residence Storehouse Is

The Shimanouchi Katsuyuki Family Residence Storehouse (島内克之家住宅蔵) is a two-storey clay-walled storehouse of 1911 in Kamioka, Noichi-cho, Konan City, Kochi Prefecture, listed as Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 25 June 2002.

It stands west of the main house, its ridge running north to south. The footprint is 2 and a half Ken by 2 ken, a building area of just 18 square metres.

The type is a Dozo-zukuri storehouse entered from the gable end, Tsumairi, with a gabled Kirizuma-zukuri roof of pantiles set on top as a separate structure, the arrangement known as oki-yane. The lower walls are clad in boarding and everything above is finished in Tosa plaster.

Why It Was Listed

The Storehouse was registered as a model of its building type, one of only two structures on the estate listed on that criterion; the other is the main house.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs entry values it as a compact summary of how storehouses were built in Tosa, the historic province that is now Kochi. Three features are named: the detached oki-yane roof, the two-part wall of boarded base and plastered upper storey, and the rows of mizukiri-gawara, tiles projecting from the wall.

Those tiles are the signature of the Tosa storehouse. Set in the plaster like a series of tiny eaves, they catch rain running down the wall and throw it clear before it can soak and erode the finish, a real concern on a coast as wet and storm-prone as Kochi's. Here there are 2 rows on the west face and 3 on the north gable. The different counts on different faces suggest the builders read the weather on each side.

The Shimanouchi Katsuyuki Family Residence Storehouse is small, but nearly every element that makes a Tosa storehouse distinctive is present, and that completeness is the reason for its listing.

What to Look For

Count the tile rows. On the north gable the 3 rows sit at even intervals across the lower part of the triangular wall, like grey rules drawn on white paper. The 2 rows on the west side are more restrained, and the difference between the faces is easy to see.

Look at the base boarding too. This is sasarako-shitami: horizontal overlapping boards held by vertical battens notched to follow each lap. It protects the part of the wall most exposed to splashing rain and mud, and the line where timber meets plaster cuts the elevation cleanly in two.

The roof is an oki-yane, built as a separate frame and set down on top of the earthen box. On storehouses of this kind a gap can often be seen under the eaves between the walls and the roof above them.

Tosa plaster, made with lime and fermented straw fibre and laid on thick, is said to weather to a slightly warm, yellowish white rather than the cold white of ordinary lime plaster. Its tone shifts noticeably between sun and cloud.

Visiting

The Shimanouchi Katsuyuki Family Residence Storehouse stands on private land and is not open to visitors. Neither the Konan City nor the Kochi Prefecture cultural property lists give any visiting information (checked 26 September 2026).

Its west face looks onto the water channel along the western edge of the property, and the official description notes that this storehouse and the barn beside it shape the scenery along that channel. That is the side to look from, but whether there is a walkable path along the channel has not been confirmed. Follow what you find on the ground and do not enter the property.

No notice about photography was found; keep it discreet, since this is part of a family home.