Kojiya Tarobei Shoten Tool Storehouse

What Is the Kojiya Tarobei Shoten Tool Storehouse?

The Kojiya Tarobei Shoten Tool Storehouse (糀屋太郎兵衛商店道具蔵, Kōjiya Tarobē Shōten Dōgugura) is a late Edo-period storehouse built in 1855 on the Kojiya Tarobei Shoten property in Uomachi, Matsusaka City, Mie Prefecture, and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on February 4, 2021.

It is a 2-storey Dozo-zukuri storehouse, thick earthen walls over a timber frame, standing in the southeast corner of the plot and facing west, with a building area of 44 square meters. When the Great Matsusaka Fire of March 29, 1893 took the shop and the other buildings, this one came through. It is the only Edo-period building among the four at Kojiya Tarobei Shoten.

An Inscription That Dates the Tool Storehouse

The date of 1855 comes from brush-written inscriptions (bokusho) in the building itself. Matsusaka City cites them as proof that the Kojiya Tarobei Shoten Tool Storehouse escaped the fire, and the Agency for Cultural Affairs calls it a surviving piece of the pre-fire, Edo-period layout of the property. It was registered for contributing to the historic landscape.

Not everything you see is from 1855. The covered work area at the front, the Kuramae, was added around 1893. What stands today is an Edo storehouse that came through the fire, fronted by a Meiji lean-to built at the same time as the rest of the property was being rebuilt.

One curiosity: the building is called the tool storehouse, but the agency describes it as a store for household goods. The koji-making tools were kept in the inner storehouse next door to the north. The mismatch may reflect uses that shifted over the years, but we found no source that explains it.

How the Kojiya Tarobei Shoten Tool Storehouse Is Built

The roof is laid in Hongawarabuki, the heavier style of alternating round and flat tiles. The gable end faces front (Tsumairi), and a lean-to (Geya) over the entrance forms the kuramae. The walls are plastered in Shikkui right up under the eaves and finished with a thickened band, the Hachimaki, just below them. The side facing outward from the property is sheathed in overlapping boards (Shitami-itabari), a practical skin that keeps weather off the earthen wall.

Inside, the floor is boarded, the walls are lined with vertical planks, and the roof is carried on sloping rafter beams (Nobori-bari). Mie Prefecture notes that the space in front of this storehouse was where kojibuta were washed, the shallow wooden trays in which koji is spread to grow. So the kuramae was part of the daily work of the shop as well as an entrance.

Seeing the Kojiya Tarobei Shoten Tool Storehouse

The Kojiya Tarobei Shoten Tool Storehouse stands at the back of a private home and working shop, and we found no notice of it being opened to the public (checked September 2026). There is no visitor reception, so please do not enter the property without permission.

What you can see from the street is the front of the Shop and Main House; the tool storehouse lies behind it on the southeast side. Directions are on the Kojiya Tarobei Shoten page.