Tanaka Honke Museum Gate Storehouse

What the Tanaka Honke Museum Gate Storehouse Is

The Tanaka Honke Museum Gate Storehouse (田中本家博物館門土蔵) is a late Edo-period single-storey clay-walled storehouse beside the Front Gate on the west side of the Tanaka merchant estate in Suzaka City, Nagano Prefecture, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 19 September 2003.

It runs along the street for about 10 metres under a gabled roof on a north-south ridge, laid with pantiles, and covers 44 square metres. Its north gable meets the Front Gate and its south gable meets the Rice Storehouse.

As the name says, this is the storehouse by the gate, and with the gate it forms the face of the estate.

Why the Gate Storehouse Was Registered

The Tanaka Honke Museum Gate Storehouse was registered as contributing to the historic landscape. The Agency for Cultural Affairs notes how well it sits with the Front Gate and the Rice Storehouse, giving order to the front of the estate.

The Agency dates it to the very end of the Edo period, which would make it older than the Meiji buildings behind it. A National Museum of Japanese History study, however, cites a record that only one storehouse survived the Suzaka uprising fire of 1870. The two accounts do not agree, and the date is best read with that in mind.

What to Look For: The Street-Side Skirting

The walls are carefully finished in white lime plaster, and on the street side the lower part is covered with overlapping weatherboards held by notched battens, a technique called sasarako shitami. The battens are cut to follow each board, so a neat rhythm of shadows runs beneath the white wall.

Boarding protects the base of the wall from rain splash and from knocks by people and carts. That it appears on the street face tells you how much this storehouse was built to be seen.

Roof height and finish match the gate to the north and the Rice Storehouse to the south, so from the road the joins almost disappear. That unbroken line is the landscape the registration recognises.

Visiting the Gate Storehouse

The Tanaka Honke Museum Gate Storehouse faces the street and can be seen from outside at any time. Walk north along the road toward the gate and the white walls of the Rice Storehouse, Gate Storehouse and Front Gate run on without a break.

The inside is not usually open, so ask at reception if you would like to see it. Opening days and admission are on the Tanaka Honke Museum page.