Tanaka Honke Museum Kamaba Storehouse

What the Tanaka Honke Museum Kamaba Storehouse Is

The Tanaka Honke Museum Kamaba Storehouse (田中本家博物館釜場蔵, kamaba-gura) is a later Edo-period single-storey clay-walled storehouse on the south edge of the Tanaka merchant estate in Suzaka City, Nagano Prefecture, which served as the boiler house of the sake brewery, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 19 September 2003.

It continues east from the Rice Storehouse, about 11 metres long and 56 square metres in area, under a gabled roof on an east-west ridge laid in pantiles. The doorway is on the north side, sheltered by an open lean-to Geya eave.

A passage separates it from the brewery to the east, with a wicket door on the south. With the Rice Storehouse to the west and the brewery to the east, it forms part of a single line of grain and brewing buildings along the south edge.

Why the Kamaba Storehouse Was Registered

The Tanaka Honke Museum Kamaba Storehouse was registered as contributing to the historic landscape. Its roof is framed in the same Wagoya manner as the brewery, and it was built as part of the brewing works.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs singles out the raised vent on the ridge, a small second roof that let steam and smoke escape when rice was steamed over the kettles. It calls this one of the marks of a brewing building, and no other storehouse on the estate has it.

What to Look For: The Ridge Vent

Look up at the ridge first. A small raised roof sits on top of the main one, with gaps on either side where smoke and steam could escape. It also gives a single-storey storehouse a touch of height.

The north eave probably sheltered the work of carrying in fuel and rice. With the doorway and open eave together, the north side shows the working face of the building, unlike its plain white south wall.

The Agency dates it to the later Edo period, while a National Museum of Japanese History study cites a record that only one storehouse survived the Suzaka uprising fire of 1870 and that the brewery burned. The sources differ on its age.

Visiting the Kamaba Storehouse

The north side of the Tanaka Honke Museum Kamaba Storehouse faces into the estate and is seen after entering. The ridge vent is easier to make out from a few steps back.

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