Morohashi Family Residence Storehouse

About the Morohashi Family Residence Storehouse

The Morohashi Family Residence Storehouse (諸橋家住宅土蔵, Morohashi-ke Jūtaku Dozō) is a one-story Dozo-zukuri storehouse in Myogadani, Konan Ward, Niigata City, built in 1905 and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on November 20, 2001. It is about 16 years older than the main house of around 1921, making it the first of the two buildings of the Morohashi Family Residence.

The Morohashi storehouse stands south of the main house and faces north. It covers 25 square meters and is divided lengthwise into two rooms, one a rice store and the other a general storeroom.

A Floating Roof and a Sheltered Doorway

The storehouse has a gabled Kirizuma-zukuri roof of Sangawara-buki tiles, with the entrance on the long side parallel to the ridge, an arrangement called Hirairi. The roof is of the Okiyane type: a separately framed roof set over the clay-walled body of the store, leaving a layer of air between roof and walls.

In front of the door is a Geya lean-to about 2 ken (roughly 3.6 meters) wide. This small projecting roof protects the doorway from rain and snow while goods are carried in and out. Standing before the north front, you can see how this lean-to, opening toward the main house, becomes the face of the building.

Inside, the two rooms split the work of the farm between them: rice in one, everything else in the other. Dividing a store of only 25 square meters this way suits a household that farmed rice in the waterlogged fields of Kamedagō.

Why It Was Registered: Exposed Posts and a White Cornice

The Morohashi Family Residence Storehouse was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape. What caught the Agency for Cultural Affairs' attention was the way the outer walls are composed.

Most Japanese storehouses bury their posts inside thick plastered walls and present a flat white surface. This one is finished in Shinkabe style, with the posts left visible on the wall face. The lower part of the wall is clad in Shitami-itabari overlapping boards, and above it posts rise at every half ken, about 90 centimeters apart, giving the sides of the store a steady vertical rhythm.

Under the eaves runs a Nokijabara, a stepped cornice built up in Shikkui plaster. The rough, post-and-panel walls below and the neat white band at the eaves play off each other, and the Agency describes the result as a composition full of variety.

Visiting the Morohashi Storehouse

The Morohashi Family Residence Storehouse stands inside a private family property and is still part of the household's daily life. Its interior is not open, and visitors cannot enter the grounds to see it up close.

The storehouse lies south of the main house, but the sources consulted do not say how much of it can be seen from the public road. If you visit, look only from the street and avoid photographing the family's home life.