Kihachiya Ryokan Stone Storehouse

A Stone Store with a Roof Terrace

The Kihachiya Ryokan Stone Storehouse (喜八屋旅館石蔵) is a two-storey stone storehouse of the late Taisho era in Ogimachi, Sado City, Niigata Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) on August 3, 2006 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency records a 2-storey stone building with a building area of 26 square metres; registration number 15-0203.

An Oya-Stone Store for Tableware

The Kihachiya Ryokan Stone Storehouse stands northeast of the Annex. Its plan is nearly square, two and a half ken on each side, with two storeys of stone under a flat roof of reinforced concrete (Agency for Cultural Affairs). The walls are built of Ōya stone laid in broken joints, so that the vertical joints never run straight up the wall.

It was used to store tableware and similar goods (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Sado City dates it to the same time as the Annex, around the end of the Taisho era.

Why It Was Registered

The Agency registered the Kihachiya Ryokan Stone Storehouse as a structure that contributes to the historic landscape of the country. Its description notes that the roof served as a terrace for the Annex guest rooms, so a building made for storage also worked for the view.

Placing a stone store behind the timber buildings and giving it a flat roof that guests could use shows the inn making the most of a small plot by the sea.

What to Look For

The thing to notice at the Kihachiya Ryokan Stone Storehouse is its flat roof. According to Sado City, the roof adjoined the third-floor guest rooms of the Annex and was used as a "balcony".

The storehouse originally stood at the very back of the plot, facing the shore (Agency for Cultural Affairs). A building only two and a half ken square thus served both as a store for tableware and as a terrace looking out to sea.

Visiting

The Kihachiya Ryokan Stone Storehouse stands at the back of the plot, and no official information was found on interior access or photography. Sado City's townscape survey report of 2023 says it and the Annex were too badly decayed to be surveyed. Directions from Ogi Port and the use of the Old Building's ground floor are covered on the Kihachiya Ryokan page.