Hayashibara Museum of Art Central Storehouse

The Middle of Three Storehouses

The Hayashibara Museum of Art Central Storehouse (林原美術館中蔵, Hayashibara Bijutsukan Nakagura) is an early Meiji-period storehouse, built between 1868 and 1882, 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 middle one of three storehouses set along the northern stone wall, a two-storey timber building with a tiled roof and a building area of 148 square meters.

Like its neighbors, it came from the Ikusaka Mukai-yashiki, a residence of the Ikusaka branch of the Ikeda family. Here the records differ. The Agency for Cultural Affairs gives two dates for the move, about 1893 and about 1909, while Okayama Prefecture puts the move of all three storehouses and the gate at about 1909. The published sources do not explain why the Central Storehouse alone carries two dates.

Registered for Its Walls

The Hayashibara Museum of Art Central Storehouse was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape. The East Storehouse next door is valued largely for the archive it once held; the Agency's description of the Central Storehouse, by contrast, is almost entirely about its outer walls.

It works through the base, the corners and a band around the upper floor, then concludes that this exterior design helps form the streetscape. Of the three storehouse descriptions, this one says the most about wall details. The case for registration rests on what a passer-by actually sees.

Namako Tiles, Corner Pieces and a Drip Course

The Hayashibara Museum of Art Central Storehouse is a two-storey Dozo-zukuri building with a gabled Kirizuma-zukuri roof in Hongawarabuki tiling. The walls are white Shikkui plaster, with Namako-kabe below waist height: flat tiles fixed to the wall, their joints covered by rounded ridges of plaster that draw a white lattice over the dark tile.

Tiles that wrap the corners

At the outside corners the builders used L-shaped purpose-made tiles combined with flat tiles laid on the diagonal. Corners take the most weather and knocks, and plaster there chips easily. Wrapping them in shaped tiles lets the tile take the wear instead.

A band around the upper floor

A band of namako tiling runs all the way around the upper floor, fitted with mizukiri-gawara, small projecting tiles that throw rainwater off the wall before it can run down over the plaster below. Standing in front and looking up, you read the facade in layers: roof, white wall, the tiled band, white wall again, then the tiled base.

The West Storehouse next door also has namako tiling at the base and on the upper floor, but its corners are finished in namako tiling as well. Compare the corners of the two buildings and the difference is plain.

Visiting the Central Storehouse

The Hayashibara Museum of Art Central Storehouse is not an exhibition space, and the museum's visitor guide gives no information about access to the interior. Its interest lies in the walls, so if you can find a spot with a view, look for the corner tiles and the upper band.

The Agency's photographs treat the south side as the front. Because the storehouse sits on the northern edge of the grounds, ask at reception where it can be seen.