Northern Culture Museum Gate Storehouse

Gate and Storehouse in One

The Northern Culture Museum Gate Storehouse (北方文化博物館門土蔵, Mondozō) in Somi, Konan Ward, Niigata City, is a two-storey timber gate and storehouse of 1887, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 28 April 2000.

The Northern Culture Museum Gate Storehouse continues south from the Storehouse Gate and completes the east front of the estate. It has a building area of 46 square metres, a full second storey and a Sangawara-buki pantile roof, hipped (Yosemune-zukuri) at its south end, with the gateway at its north end.

The gateway is three bays wide, with doors in the centre that open inward. According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs, the storehouse part holds the Ito family's lacquerware.

The Face of the Estate

The Northern Culture Museum Gate Storehouse was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape, and the agency considers it, with the Storehouse Gate, a symbol of the local scene.

Combining gate and storehouse gives the entrance a solid, guarded look. The museum's building guide says the structure contains both a formal great gate and a service gate for everyday use, with storehouses on either side holding household lacquerware and old documents.

The agency dates it to 1887; the museum's guide, treating it together with the Storehouse Gate, says about 1885. This article follows the national database.

Inward-Opening Doors

The detail to notice on the Northern Culture Museum Gate Storehouse is the pair of inward-opening doors at the centre of the three-bay gateway. Because they swing inward, they never project toward the street, open or shut.

The hipped south end answers the hipped north end of the Storehouse Gate, so the whole east front is closed off the same way at both extremes, with the gate between.

Visiting the Gate Storehouse

Today the Northern Culture Museum Gate Storehouse houses the museum's main ticket office. Most visitors buy their tickets here and pass through the gate into the estate. The museum's October notice directs individual visitors and cars to the main-gate car park and reception.

At some times of year reception moves to the west-gate side. Nothing is published about access to the storehouse interior. Ask at reception before photographing inside the grounds.