Hatta Family Residence Long Storehouse

A Long Storehouse on the Northern Edge

The Hatta Family Residence Long Storehouse (八田家住宅長土蔵, Hatta-ke Jūtaku Nagadozō) is a single-storey storehouse on a merchant compound in Matsushiro, Nagano City, Nagano Prefecture; built around 1897, it was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 26 December 2005. It starts at the northwest corner of the Hatta property and runs east, forming the compound's northern boundary.

It is a Dozo-zukuri storehouse, with thick clay walls, measuring 20 bays in length (Ketayuki) and 2 bays in depth (Harima). Its footprint of 132 square metres makes it the largest of the three storehouses on the site. The roof is gabled and laid with Sangawara-buki pan tiles.

The outer walls stop at the intermediate coat. A clay storehouse wall is normally built up from a rough base coat, then an intermediate coat, then a finish coat, usually plaster. The Hatta Family Residence Long Storehouse shows its clay without that final skim.

Why It Matters

The Long Storehouse was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape. The Agency for Cultural Affairs calls it plain, showing the road nothing but a single simple window, and still counts it with the gate, the Main House and the wall as part of a street front worthy of a wealthy merchant.

Plainness is not a weakness here. A storehouse 20 bays long takes up the northern edge of the plot and becomes the perimeter of the compound itself. In the late eighteenth century the Hatta are said to have had eleven storehouses on about 800 tsubo; even after the Meiji rebuilding, storehouses still set the outline of the property.

Seen from the road, the Long Storehouse is the northern end of the street front. The elevation that runs north from the Front Gate past the Main House and the wall turns the corner at this storehouse's gable and heads east.

What to Look For

The one opening toward the road is an agemado, a window whose shutter is propped upward. A single window in an otherwise blank clay wall says plenty about a building meant to protect what was inside.

Pay attention to the surface too. From the white plaster of the wall to the storehouse's intermediate coat, the color and texture change abruptly even though both went up at the same time. The unfinished clay is warmer in tone than plaster, and in raking light the marks of the trowel come up.

To feel the length, look east from the northwest corner, though how far you can see from outside the property depends on what surrounds it.

Visiting

The interior of the Hatta Family Residence Long Storehouse is not open to the public (checked September 2026). From the pavement on National Route 403 you can see its gable end at the northwest corner and the single window.

The grounds are private. Stay off the property and take photographs from public ground.