Hara Family Residence Back Storehouse

The Second of a Pair of Storehouses

Hara Family Residence Back Storehouse (原家住宅奥土蔵, Hara-ke Jūtaku Oku-dozō) is a two-storey Dozo-zukuri storehouse, built around 1906 in Nihongi, Konan Ward, Niigata City, and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 1 August 2016. It has a tiled gabled roof and a building area of 39 square metres.

It stands on the northern side of the grounds, facing south, alongside the storehouse to its east, with a single-storey shed filling the gap between them. The covered corridor from the annex reaches this building too.

Built as a Twin

In construction it closely follows its neighbour: two storeys of earthen walls, with a tiled gabled roof built in the oki-yane manner, as a separate timber roof resting on the sealed body of the storehouse.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs notes that the wall treatment, and the Scottish steel around the doorway, are almost the same as on the storehouse next door. The two were evidently built at about the same time and to the same plan.

The Agency describes the Hara Family Residence Back Storehouse as a building that shapes the look of the grounds. Its value lies less in the building on its own than in the row it forms with its twin and the shed between them.

What to Look For

The pair is the thing to see: two matching storehouses and a low shed, making a single continuous frontage along the north of the compound.

Look closely and you will notice the Hara Family Residence Back Storehouse is the larger of the two, at 39 square metres against the 33 square metres of its neighbour. Such small differences only show when the two are side by side.

At the south-facing entrance, the steel door framing matches that of the storehouse next door.

Viewing the Back Storehouse

The back storehouse is closed to the public, and its interior cannot be visited.

It stands on the northern side of the grounds, west of the storehouse, with its front facing into the compound. We have not been able to confirm how much of it can be seen from the public road, and the grounds cannot be entered.