Ikinariya Storehouse

One Storehouse, a Registered Tangible Cultural Property since 2000

Ikinariya Storehouse (行形亭土蔵, Ikinariya Dozo) stands at 573 Nishiobata-cho, Chuo ward, Niigata City, Niigata Prefecture, a Showa-period building entered on the register of tangible cultural properties on 28 April 2000. It is a registered property rather than a designated one.

The quantity is one building. The reading field gives the establishment's name as Ikinariya.

The structure is timber, two-storeyed, tiled, with a floor area of 59 square metres. The owner is the company that runs the restaurant.

Valued for Being Well Loved

The reason given rests on how people regard it.

The Agency closes that the storehouse, seen from the road beyond a black boarded fence and black pines, is well loved as a view that stands for the character of Niigata.

Not the quality of the building itself, but the view from the street and the affection in which it is held.

The main hall at Ozasahara Shrine was called one of the finest of its kind, the founder's hall at Senjuji a benchmark, and the Kumedera pagoda conventional yet well proportioned. All of those judge the making.

With the lacquered dais the reason was fitness for purpose; with the Wakato Bridge, cooperation among engineers.

Here the reason is how it is seen. That suits a system whose registration criterion speaks of contributing to the historic landscape. As a way of stating value this is the eighth met.

Dated by Reference to Another Building

When it was built is given through its relation to a neighbouring building.

The Agency opens by noting that it was built at the same time as the detached guest room.

Rather than dating the storehouse on its own, the record ties it to another building on the same grounds. The date field reads early Showa, and the year field 1928.

At the Seianji guest hall, the date was reasoned from comparison with guest halls at other temples nearby. That looks outside the site.

Here the comparison stays within one property. The detached guest room is itself a registered building, so the reference point is in the record too.

At the Nikaido residence, the two buildings were ninety years apart, each with its own year. Here one building is placed in the same year as another.

Ten Buildings Registered at One Restaurant

Registered buildings stand together on a single site.

Related entries name the main building, the detached guest room, the bath house, three named rooms, the front gate, the rear gate, and the middle gate with its fence.

With this storehouse that makes ten. Rooms are registered individually, and the gates come in three separate entries.

At the Kasuga Shrine moshiden, related entries covered the worship hall, the kagura stage, the gates, the bell tower, the main hall and a subsidiary shrine. That is a shrine precinct.

Here it is the grounds of a restaurant. At the former Konishi residence and the Fukuda residence, a main house and its storehouses formed one property between them.

Here each building, and each room, carries its own registration. The counting divides very finely.

Visiting

The storehouse stands at 573 Nishiobata-cho, Chuo ward, Niigata City, owned by the company that runs the restaurant. After the Yatsusawa power station, the Yoichi distillery, the former Konishi residence and the former Shuseikan machinery factory, this is the fifth property met here in company ownership.

The structure is described closely: a pantiled roof of the separate-roof type, with boarding up to the level of the upper floor and plaster above it.

The separate-roof type sets a further roof above the earthen structure. The boarding covers the lower part, and plaster the rest.

There is decoration as well: the gable end facing the road carries a relief plaster crane. At the Fukuda residence, key points were finished in lattice-patterned plaster and relief plasterwork.

This is a working restaurant, and the exterior can be seen from the road in front. Access to the interior follows the establishment's own arrangements. Check before travelling.