Tanaka Honke Museum Corner Storehouse

What the Tanaka Honke Museum Corner Storehouse Is

The Tanaka Honke Museum Corner Storehouse (田中本家博物館隅土蔵) is a small late Edo-period single-storey clay-walled storehouse at the northwest corner of the Tanaka merchant estate in Suzaka City, Nagano Prefecture, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 19 September 2003.

It covers just 33 square metres. Its roof is hipped on a north-south ridge and laid in pantiles, unusual among the mostly gabled storehouses of the estate. Its south end joins the Nishinokura, and the wall of the Archive Storehouse pushes into the northern half of its east side.

As the name suggests, this is the storehouse that turns the corner where the west and north rows of storehouses meet.

Why the Corner Storehouse Was Registered

The Tanaka Honke Museum Corner Storehouse was registered as contributing to the historic landscape. The Agency for Cultural Affairs credits it with tidying the awkward gap at the corner, filling the space between the large Nishinokura and Archive Storehouse with a small hipped building.

A hipped roof slopes down on all four sides, so no gable wall stands out on the corner. It was probably the better shape for joining two street frontages smoothly.

The Agency dates it to the end of the Edo period, though a record cited by a museum study says most storehouses burned in the Suzaka uprising of 1870, so the date should be read with both accounts in mind.

What to Look For: The Framed Windows

The street-facing walls are white lime plaster over a skirting of weatherboards held by notched battens, and in them sit small windows with carefully moulded surrounds. It is a modest building, but the window work is fine.

Go round to the east and you can see the Archive Storehouse wall biting into its north half, two storehouses built separately and fitted snugly together at the corner.

From the crossroads to the northwest, the west row and the north row visibly pivot on this little building. It is the hinge that lets the whole perimeter read as one continuous wall.

Visiting the Corner Storehouse

The Tanaka Honke Museum Corner Storehouse stands at the northwest corner, and its street sides are visible from outside at any time. Stand diagonally opposite to see the hipped roof and both rows of storehouses at once.

The interior is not normally open. Opening days and admission are on the Tanaka Honke Museum page.