One Roof, Two Storerooms
The Storehouse of Hirai Clinic (平井医院土蔵, Hirai Iin Dozō, also transliterated Hirai-iin Dozo) is a two-storey storehouse in the Imai district of Gojō City, Nara Prefecture, built in 1855 and entered on Japan's register of Tangible Cultural Properties in 2002. It stands behind the main house, along the northern edge of a walled compound of roughly 1,200 square metres that fronts National Route 24.
Its construction date rests on the same evidence as the main house in front of it. The inscribed ridge-raising wand placed in the roof frame gives the year Ansei 2, so both buildings belong to a single campaign of work carried out in 1855. The Agency for Cultural Affairs records the structure as timber-framed, two storeys, tile-roofed, with a building area of 68 square metres. The name dozō points to the construction method the type is known for: a wooden frame encased in thick layers of earth and lime plaster, built to resist fire and to hold humidity steady.
Look at the roofline and one detail stands out immediately. The ridge does not run level. It steps, sitting higher over one half of the building than the other, which is the outward sign of an interior divided into two independent compartments. The eastern half held rice. The western half held cotton.
That division is the whole point of the building. Grain and raw cotton have incompatible storage requirements, and a household with enough of both to need dedicated rooms was operating on more than a domestic scale. Cotton was among the leading commercial crops of the Yamato basin through the Edo period, and Gojō sat where five highways converged, which made it a natural place to gather, hold and forward such goods.
Reading the Building From Outside
The storehouse presents a gabled roof of sangawara pantiles over an east-west ridge, the same orientation as the house in front. On the south face, a small pent roof projects above the doorway. Japanese carpentry calls this a tomae-bisashi, and it is not decoration. Storehouse doors are heavy, plastered and slow to open; the little roof keeps rain off the threshold and the plaster around it while the door stands wide during loading.
The registration entry places the building behind the main house, along the northern boundary of the plot. That position follows the standard logic of a large Edo-period compound. The gate and the formal rooms face the highway. Storage, service and the messier work retreat to the back, out of sight of anyone arriving at the front. The storehouse was never meant to be looked at from the road, and it still is not easy to see.
What can be seen from the highway is the upper part of its roof rising behind the main house, the stepped ridge visible as a break in the tile line. Approaching from the west along Route 24 gives the clearer angle, since the roof planes separate rather than overlap.
The Agency for Cultural Affairs registered the storehouse under the first criterion, contribution to the historic landscape of the country, with the number 29-0068. Registration took effect on 21 August 2002 and appeared in the official gazette on 3 September, in the thirty-fourth round. The main house (29-0067) and the long-house gate on the southern boundary were listed the same day.
Visiting the Site
The compound is in daily use as Hirai Naika Clinic, a practice covering internal medicine, respiratory conditions and allergies. The buildings are private property and none of them is open to visitors. There is no interior access to the storehouse, no scheduled opening and no admission arrangement. Anyone coming to see it should stay on the public pavement of National Route 24 and treat the site as what it is, a working surgery where people are arriving unwell.
Given how little of the storehouse is visible, most visitors will get more from the compound as a whole. The gatehouse across the southern boundary is 9.0 metres wide with a hip-and-gable roof, horizontal lattice windows flanking the entrance, and clapboard siding below. Behind it the main house shows its long gabled roof and a small smoke vent on the ridge. The storehouse roof completes the sequence at the back.
Gojō Station on the JR Wakayama Line is about 700 metres west, a walk of under ten minutes. Photography from the public road is unrestricted, though photographs of patients or staff should be avoided.
Gojō Shinmachi, an Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings selected in 2010, lies roughly 1.5 kilometres southwest beside the Yoshino River. Several of its merchant houses retain their own storehouses, some open to view, and a walk there after looking at the Hirai compound gives a much better sense of how these buildings worked than the roofline glimpsed from Route 24 can offer on its own.
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Q&A
- Can you visit the Storehouse of Hirai Clinic or see inside it?
- No. The storehouse stands on private property occupied by an active medical clinic. There is no interior access, no open day and no admission fee. Only the upper roof is visible, from the public pavement on National Route 24.
- Why does the Storehouse of Hirai Clinic have a stepped ridge?
- Because the interior is divided into two separate compartments with different roof heights. The eastern half was used to store rice and the western half to store cotton, two goods with different storage needs, and the change in ridge level marks the division from outside.
- When was the Storehouse of Hirai Clinic built?
- In 1855, the second year of the Ansei era. The inscribed ridge-raising wand set into the roof frame gives the date, and shows the storehouse was built in the same campaign as the main house in front of it.
- What is the small roof over the door of the Storehouse of Hirai Clinic for?
- It is a tomae-bisashi, a pent roof set above a storehouse doorway on the south face. It shelters the threshold and the surrounding plasterwork from rain while the heavy plastered door is open for loading and unloading.
- How do you reach the Storehouse of Hirai Clinic?
- Gojō Station on the JR Wakayama Line lies about 700 metres west, under ten minutes on foot along National Route 24. The compound is on the north side of the road; approaching from the west gives the clearest view of the storehouse roof behind the main house.
- What protection does registration give the Storehouse of Hirai Clinic?
- Registered Tangible Cultural Property status, introduced in 1996, is lighter than Important Cultural Property designation. Alterations require notification rather than advance permission, and owners receive tax relief and limited repair grants while continuing to use the building. The storehouse holds registration number 29-0068, effective 21 August 2002.
Basic Information
| Name | Hirai Iin Dozō (平井医院土蔵), Storehouse of Hirai Clinic |
|---|---|
| Location | Imaichō 4-1-16, Gojō City, Nara Prefecture (Gojō City and the clinic give the address as Imai 4-chōme 1-16) |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Buildings); registration no. 29-0068; criterion: contribution to the historic landscape of the country |
| Year Designated | 2002 (registered 21 August, gazetted 3 September, 34th round) |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Timber frame, two storeys, tile roof; building area 68 m² |
| Owner | Private (not recorded in the national database) |
| Public Access | Not open to the public. Stands within an active medical clinic compound; roof partially visible from National Route 24 |
References
- National Database of Designated Cultural Properties, Agency for Cultural Affairs: Hirai Iin Dozō
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00002978
- Cultural Heritage Online: Hirai Iin Dozō
- https://online.bunka.go.jp/heritages/detail/138748
- Cultural Heritage Online: Hirai Iin Shuoku (main house)
- https://online.bunka.go.jp/heritages/detail/116057
- Cultural Heritage Online: Hirai Iin Omotemon (front gate)
- https://online.bunka.go.jp/heritages/detail/193979
- Gojō City: Registered Tangible Cultural Properties of Gojō
- https://www.city.gojo.lg.jp/soshiki/kankoshinko/5_1/5/2110.html
- Gojō City: Outline of the Gojō Shinmachi Preservation District
- https://www.city.gojo.lg.jp/soshiki/bunka/1_1/1/3116.html
- Gojō City Medical Association: Hirai Naika Clinic
- https://gojomed.gr.jp/hospital/hirai/
Last verified: 2026.08.24