Tanaka Family Residence East Storehouse

The Tool Storehouse East of the Main House

The Tanaka Family Residence East Storehouse (田中家住宅東蔵, Tanaka-ke Jūtaku Higashigura) is a tool storehouse built in 1905 just east of the main house of the Tanaka compound in Iitakacho Hase, Matsusaka City, Mie Prefecture, and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on November 2, 2018.

It is a 2-storey Dozo-zukuri storehouse with a building area of 61 square metres, its gabled tile roof running east to west. Doorways open on the west and north sides, and a lean-to roof wraps around it.

A Storehouse Built for the Street

The Tanaka Family Residence East Storehouse held the household's tools and equipment. The Agency for Cultural Affairs singles out the careful finish of its south side, the one facing the highway, and counts it among the elements that make up the historic roadside scene.

The front earthen wall, running from the east face of the main house, meets the storehouse at the foot of that south side, and the east earthen wall leaves its north side for the northeast corner of the lot. Wall and storehouse together close the eastern edge of the property, and the east earthen wall was built in the same year, 1905.

Drip Moulding and Hooded Windows

On the Tanaka East Storehouse the detail is concentrated on the south side. It stands on a stone base with vertical boarding at the foot of the wall and white plaster above. Each floor has a double-shuttered window under its own small hood, and a projecting drip moulding runs along the line between the two floors to throw off rainwater.

Because the front earthen wall joins it, the stone base and white plaster run from wall to storehouse without a break. Mie Prefecture's own photograph frames the two together from the south.

Seeing the East Storehouse

The south side of the Tanaka Family Residence East Storehouse faces the old highway, so its exterior can be seen from the road. The Tanaka Family Museum opens part of the residence by reservation and plans to use one storehouse as a gallery, but it does not say whether the interior of the east storehouse is included.