A Storehouse That Became a Billiard Room
Kappo Tochu Ue-no-kura (割烹東忠上の蔵, also romanized Kappō Tōchū Ue-no-kura), the storehouse standing at the rear of the Tochu restaurant in Motomachi, Ojiya City, Niigata Prefecture, is a two-storey earthen-walled building of the early Meiji period that was listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property of Japan on 17 November 2015.
The Agency for Cultural Affairs dates the fabric to somewhere between 1868 and 1882 and records alterations during the early Showa period, 1926 to 1945. The footprint is 41 square metres, making this by a wide margin the smallest of the three registered structures on the site. The roof is gabled and covered in sheet steel.
Its name translates as the upper storehouse, which suits its position: the ground here slopes, and the building stands against the north inner section of the main house with the two gable ends meeting.
The construction type is dozo, the thick-walled storehouse of earth and plaster that Japanese merchants used to protect goods and documents from fire. On both floors the gable ends project outward. The walls are treated in two different ways, and the split is easy to see from the yard: the upper storey of the main body carries white shikkui lime plaster, while everything else is faced in horizontal weatherboarding.
What the Registration Records
Registration number 15-0422 was gazetted on 17 November 2015, in the 82nd round of national registrations, together with the main building and the annex. The criterion applied was that the structure contributes to the historical landscape of the country.
The interesting phrase in the official citation comes at the end, where the building is described as a surviving example of an amusement facility attached to a restaurant. That is a narrow category, and it is the reason this small storehouse was registered rather than passed over.
Before the war the ground floor was fitted out as a billiard room. Billiards arrived in Japan through foreign settlements in the nineteenth century and spread through the Taisho and early Showa decades as a fashionable Western amusement, first in the cities and then in provincial towns wherever there was money and leisure. A restaurant serving textile and carp merchants in Ojiya evidently had both.
Converting a storehouse was a practical choice. A dozo already offered a large clear span without interior partitions, which is exactly what a billiard table wants. The interior finish that came with the conversion is what the citation notes: Western-style brackets, mochiokuri, of a kind that belongs to imported carpentry rather than to Japanese storehouse building. A second alteration accompanied it. An entrance porch was added at the north gable, roofed in a half-hipped form, so that players could come and go without passing through the storehouse's original working doors.
Consider the arithmetic. With a 41-square-metre footprint and the thick earthen walls of a dozo eating into that figure, the ground floor could hold one table and the players around it, and very little else. This was not a public billiard hall. It was a room for the house's own guests, one party at a time.
Seeing It Today
The storehouse is not the part of Tochu that visitors book. It sits behind the main building, and the restaurant's published room list, which names the halls and private rooms available for dining, does not include it.
What that means in practice is that the exterior is the realistic object of a visit. Come as a dining guest, and from the grounds and the garden side you can read the things that matter: the gable meeting the main house, the projecting ends on both storeys, the change from plaster above to weatherboard below, and the added porch on the north face. Anyone with an interest in going further should ask at reception rather than assume, and accept that the answer may be no on a busy day.
Three buildings, three different registration numbers, three different centuries of origin, all within a few metres of each other. The late-Edo main house, the prewar Showa annex, and this Meiji storehouse turned games room together record roughly a hundred and fifty years of one business adapting its premises. The storehouse is the clearest evidence of the adaptation, because its original purpose and its later purpose have nothing in common.
Practical matters for the site as a whole. Tochu Ojiya serves lunch from 11:00 to 14:00 with arrival requested by 13:30, and dinner from 17:00 to 22:00 with arrival by 19:00. Closing days are irregular and posted monthly on the official website. Telephone reservation is recommended (0258-82-2033). The in-house cafe has been suspended indefinitely. From JR Ojiya Station a taxi takes about five minutes and the walk about 20; from the Ojiya interchange on the Kan-etsu Expressway, allow about eight minutes by car, and check the approach map the restaurant publishes, because the lanes nearby are narrow. Four car parks hold about 18 vehicles between them.
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Q&A
- Why is Kappo Tochu Ue-no-kura a registered cultural property?
- The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes it as a surviving example of an amusement facility attached to a restaurant. Its ground floor was fitted out as a billiard room before the war, and the conversion left Western-style brackets in the interior and a half-hipped entrance porch on the north gable.
- How old is Kappo Tochu Ue-no-kura and how is it built?
- It dates from the early Meiji period, recorded as 1868 to 1882, with alterations in the early Showa period. It is a single earthen-walled dozo storehouse of two storeys with a gabled sheet-steel roof and a building area of 41 square metres, making it the smallest of the three registered Tochu buildings.
- Can visitors go inside Kappo Tochu Ue-no-kura?
- The storehouse does not appear among the rooms the restaurant offers for dining, so interior access should not be assumed. The exterior can be seen from the grounds by guests of the restaurant. Anyone wishing to know more should enquire at reception or by telephone in advance.
- What do the exterior walls of Kappo Tochu Ue-no-kura look like?
- The upper storey of the main body is finished in white shikkui lime plaster, and the remaining wall surfaces are clad in horizontal weatherboarding. Both storeys project outward at the two gable ends, and the south gable abuts the rear north section of the main building.
- When was Kappo Tochu Ue-no-kura registered, and what about the other buildings?
- It was gazetted on 17 November 2015 in the 82nd round of registrations, under number 15-0422. The main building (15-0420) and the annex (15-0421) were registered on the same day. All three belong to the Ojiya City Industrial Development Center.
Basic Information
| Name | Kappo Tochu Ue-no-kura (割烹東忠上の蔵) |
|---|---|
| Location | 538-1 Motomachi, Ojiya City, Niigata Prefecture (the restaurant lists its street address as 11-11 Motomachi) |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structures), registration no. 15-0422 |
| Year Designated | 17 November 2015 (82nd registration round) |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Earthen-walled storehouse construction, two storeys, sheet-steel roof, building area 41 m² |
| Owner | Ojiya City Industrial Development Center (general incorporated foundation) |
| Public Access | Not listed among the restaurant's dining rooms; exterior visible from the grounds of Tochu Ojiya. Enquiries: 0258-82-2033 |
References
- National Cultural Properties Database, Agency for Cultural Affairs — Kappo Tochu Ue-no-kura
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00010761
- National Cultural Properties Database, Agency for Cultural Affairs — Kappo Tochu Honkan
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00010759
- Tochu Ojiya — official website
- https://tochu-ojiya.com/
- Tochu Ojiya — rooms
- https://tochu-ojiya.com/room.html
- Ojiya City — Cultural Properties of Ojiya
- https://www.city.ojiya.niigata.jp/soshiki/nigiwai/bunkazai.html
Last verified: 2026.08.04