Tanaka Honke Museum Rice Storehouse

What the Tanaka Honke Museum Rice Storehouse Is

The Tanaka Honke Museum Rice Storehouse (田中本家博物館籾土蔵, momi-dozo) is a late Edo-period single-storey clay-walled grain store at the southwest corner of the Tanaka merchant estate in Suzaka City, Nagano Prefecture, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 19 September 2003.

It is about 14 metres long and covers 108 square metres, under a gabled roof on an east-west ridge laid in pantiles. Its east gable meets the Kamaba Storehouse, and along its north side runs an open lean-to Geya eave, at the west end of which the Gate Storehouse joins it.

Momi means unhulled paddy rice. Inside are two rooms that held grain and similar goods, which puts this building at the heart of a family whose fortune began in the grain trade.

Why the Rice Storehouse Was Registered

The Tanaka Honke Museum Rice Storehouse was registered as contributing to the historic landscape. The Agency for Cultural Affairs notes how it sets off the southwest corner of the estate.

From this storehouse the perimeter runs off in two directions: north to the Gate Storehouse and Front Gate, east to the Kamaba Storehouse and the brewery. It anchors the most visible corner of the whole estate.

What to Look For: Plaster Outside, a Work Eave Inside

The walls are finished in careful white lime plaster above skirting of weatherboards held by notched battens. Both street faces share the same finish, so the storehouse looks composed from either road.

Inside the estate, the north side has the open lean-to eave, a sheltered working space where grain could be brought in and moved about in any weather. It shows the working face of the building, quite different from its tidy street walls.

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

Visiting the Rice Storehouse

The Tanaka Honke Museum Rice Storehouse stands at the southwest corner, and its street sides are visible from outside at any time. From the opposite corner you can see it launch the two lines of storehouses.

The north eave is inside the estate; after entering, head south from the Front Gate to see it. The interior is not normally open. Opening days and admission are on the Tanaka Honke Museum page.