A Taishō Storehouse Built Around Snow
The Kima Family Storehouse (木間家住宅蔵, Kima-ke Jūtaku Kura; the surname is also read Konoma) is a two-storey earthen-walled kura of the Taishō era standing in the Matsuo hamlet of Nagaoka City, Niigata Prefecture, and it was listed as one of Japan's Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on 5 December 2007. It occupies the western part of the Kima homestead, directly west of the main house.
Three and a half bays along the ridge, two across, 43 square metres on the ground. That makes it larger than the thatched barn registered alongside it on the same day, and a good deal younger: the barn dates from the early Meiji years, this building from somewhere between 1912 and 1925.
Matsuo sits at about 350 metres in the mountains of the old Tochio City area, absorbed into Nagaoka in 2006. The district carries one of the heaviest snow loads in a prefecture already known for them, and almost every decision visible in this building traces back to that fact.
The Roof That Sits Apart
A kura is essentially a timber frame buried under thick layers of mud plaster, built to keep fire, damp and thieves away from a family's stored wealth. The vulnerable part is the plaster. Water finding its way in from above will ruin months of a plasterer's work, and repairs are slow and expensive.
The answer used here is the okiyane, the "placed roof". Rather than integrating the roof into the plastered mass, the builders set an independent gabled roof structure over the top of it, resting on the box but separate from it. The plaster stays dry. The roof can be re-covered or rebuilt without disturbing the walls at all. An air gap opens between the two, which moderates the temperature swings that would otherwise pass straight into the storage space. In a fire, the roof can burn off and leave the strongbox beneath it standing.
That roof is sheathed in sheet iron. Metal roofing became widely available in rural Niigata during the Meiji and Taishō decades, and it suited snow country: light, quick to lay, and slick enough that accumulation slides rather than sits. Tile would have added weight the household had no reason to carry.
Around the base, a boarded snow screen encircles the building, and a lean-to shelters the front. Both address the same problem from different angles. The boarding takes the abrasion and the meltwater that would otherwise work at the plaster from below; the lean-to gives you somewhere to stand and open the doors when the yard is banked high.
What Was Kept Inside
The ground floor is divided into three rooms, given over to rice and to household possessions. Tochio has grown rice for centuries, with terraced paddies still worked on the slopes above the valley floors, and in a farming household of this kind the storehouse held the year's most valuable asset until it was sold, eaten or paid out.
Upstairs the arrangement is different. Closets are built directly against the side and rear walls, holding tableware and the utensils a rural household needed only on particular days: funerals, weddings, the annual festival. Fitting joinery to the inner face of a mud wall is not the obvious move, since it complicates any future re-plastering, and the choice suggests a family that expected the building to be used constantly rather than opened twice a year.
Read the two registered buildings together and a rough chronology appears. The barn, thatched and early Meiji, belongs to the older working farm. The storehouse, plastered and metal-roofed, comes from a later and more settled moment in the household's fortunes. Neither would carry much weight alone. Standing where they do, on either side of a main house that is itself unlisted, they preserve the shape of a Niigata farmstead.
Status, and How to See It
Registration is a lighter instrument than designation. National Treasures and Important Cultural Properties are designated and tightly supervised; Registered Tangible Cultural Properties, a category created in 1996, cover buildings of roughly fifty years or more whose owners keep everyday control in exchange for notifying the authorities before significant change. The Kima storehouse holds register number 15-0276, granted in the 57th round under the criterion for buildings contributing to the historic national landscape, with the gazette notice on 19 December 2007.
The building is privately owned and stands on an occupied residential property. There is no admission, no opening schedule, and no interior access. Look from the public lane, keep off the grounds, and confine any photography to the buildings themselves rather than the yard or its residents.
Reaching Matsuo takes some effort. No railway serves the Tochio district. Echigo Kōtsū rapid buses run from the east exit of Nagaoka Station to Tochio Shako-mae in roughly 38 to 40 minutes, after which Matsuo lies about eight kilometres south with thin local service, so a car from Nagaoka is the sensible approach. Winter is difficult here: the old Tochio City area is classified as a special heavy-snowfall zone, and from late December into March both the roads and the buildings are dealing with metres of snow. The irony is that the storehouse makes most sense in exactly the season when it is hardest to reach.
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Q&A
- Is the Kima Family Storehouse open to visitors, and can I see inside?
- No. The Kima Family Storehouse is privately owned and forms part of an occupied residence. There is no public opening, no admission and no interior access. The exterior can be viewed from the public road, and visitors should not enter the grounds.
- Where is the Kima Family Storehouse and how do I reach it?
- It stands at Kurashita 776, Matsuo, Nagaoka City, Niigata Prefecture, in the former Tochio City area. There is no railway station in Tochio. Echigo Kōtsū rapid buses take about 38 to 40 minutes from the east exit of Nagaoka Station to Tochio Shako-mae, and Matsuo is roughly eight kilometres further south, so driving is the practical option.
- What is an okiyane roof, and why does the Kima Family Storehouse have one?
- An okiyane is a roof structure set independently over the plastered body of a kura rather than built into it. Keeping the two separate protects the mud plaster from water, allows the roof to be replaced without touching the walls, and creates an insulating air gap. In heavy-snow districts such as Tochio those advantages matter a great deal.
- What was stored in the Kima Family Storehouse?
- The ground floor is divided into three rooms used for rice and household goods, while the upper floor has closets built against the side and rear walls for tableware and utensils. The layout is recorded in the Agency for Cultural Affairs description of the building.
- Is the Kima Family Storehouse an Important Cultural Property?
- No. It is a Registered Tangible Cultural Property, register number 15-0276, registered on 5 December 2007 and gazetted on 19 December 2007. The neighbouring Kima Family Barn was registered the same day as number 15-0275; the main house is not on the national register.
Basic Information
| Name | Kima Family Storehouse (木間家住宅蔵) |
|---|---|
| Location | 776 Kurashita, Matsuo, Nagaoka City, Niigata Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (buildings), register number 15-0276; registered under the criterion for contribution to the historic national landscape |
| Year Designated | 2007 (registered 5 December 2007; gazetted 19 December 2007) |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Two-storey earthen-wall construction, sheet-iron roof, building area 43 m²; three and a half bays by two bays |
| Owner | Private (individual) |
| Public Access | Not open to the public; exterior visible from the public road only |
References
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, National Cultural Properties Database: Kima-ke Jūtaku Kura
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00006669
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, National Cultural Properties Database: Kima-ke Jūtaku Naya
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00006668
- Agency for Cultural Affairs: Registered Tangible Cultural Properties (Buildings)
- https://www.bunka.go.jp/seisaku/bunkazai/shokai/yukei_kenzobutsu/toroku_yukei.html
- Nagaoka Municipal Science Museum: List of Designated and Registered Cultural Properties in Nagaoka
- https://www.museum.city.nagaoka.niigata.jp/know_more/bunkazai_sitei/
- Tochio Tourism Association: About Tochio
- https://tochiokankou.jp/about/index.html
Last verified: 2026.08.13