Hayashibara Museum of Art West Storehouse

The Largest Storehouse, and the Only One with a Firm Date

The Hayashibara Museum of Art West Storehouse (林原美術館西蔵, Hayashibara Bijutsukan Nishigura) is a storehouse built in 1881 on the north side of the Hayashibara Museum of Art grounds in Marunouchi, Kita-ku, Okayama City, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property of Japan in 2023. It is the westernmost of three storehouses along the northern stone wall: two storeys, timber-framed, with a tiled roof and a building area of 176 square meters, the largest of the three.

The East and Central Storehouses are dated only to the early Meiji period. The Hayashibara Museum of Art West Storehouse is the one with a specific year. It was built at the Ikusaka Mukai-yashiki, a residence of the Ikusaka branch of the Ikeda family, and moved to this site around 1909.

Rebuilt Inside When It Was Moved

The West Storehouse was not simply taken apart and put back together. According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs, when it was brought from the Ikusaka estate the upper floor was lowered and extra storage shelving was added in the roof space.

Lowering the upper floor trades headroom on the ground floor for more volume upstairs, and the new shelves in the roof space push storage higher still. It reads as a deliberate reworking of the interior to hold more, planned with the building's new use in mind.

The storehouse was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape. The interior alterations are part of its recorded history, but the registration itself rests on the exterior, which together with the East and Central Storehouses forms a row of samurai storehouses.

Namako Tiling in Three Places

The Hayashibara Museum of Art West Storehouse is a two-storey Dozo-zukuri storehouse with a gabled Kirizuma-zukuri roof in Hongawarabuki tiling. The walls are white Shikkui plaster, and Namako-kabe appears in three places: below waist height, on the outside corners, and in a band that runs around the upper floor.

The Central Storehouse next door finishes its corners with L-shaped purpose-made tiles and diagonally laid flat tiles. The West Storehouse carries the namako lattice right around the corners instead, so the white grid seems to climb from the base, turn the corner and meet the upper band. The black and white pattern frames the walls.

At 176 square meters the West Storehouse is about twice the size of the East Storehouse. The three grow steadily larger from east to west, and this one closes the row at its western end.

Visiting the West Storehouse

The museum's visitor guide gives no information about opening the interior of the Hayashibara Museum of Art West Storehouse. Exhibitions are held in the main building, so what you can see here is the exterior.

The Agency's photographs treat the south side as the front. The storehouse sits at the northwest corner of the grounds, so ask at reception where it can be seen. If you can see both, compare its corners with those of the Central Storehouse.