Yagi House Storehouse, Mikkaichi: The Gable That Faces the Pilgrims' Road
Almost every building on the old Koya Kaido at Mikkaichi turns its long side to the road. The Yagi storehouse does the opposite. It stands just north of the family's main house and presents its gable end to the street, a tall white triangle of plaster with a window on each floor and a copper door hung at each window.
Twenty-three square metres of floor area over two storeys. The Agency for Cultural Affairs entered it on the national register of Tangible Cultural Properties on 23 October 2008, notice published on 10 November, registration number 27-0520, together with the main house.
A word about the name first. Two unrelated properties in Japan are also called Yagi House: one in Mibu, Kyoto, associated with the Shinsengumi, and one at Korien in Neyagawa, a 1930 residence by the architect Fujii Koji. Different families, different buildings, no connection to this one.
The family and the town
The Yagi of Mikkaichi dealt in cotton as wholesalers before turning to sake brewing, and traded under the shop name Togeya. Their main house, dated by Kawachinagano City to the second half of the eighteenth century, is the oldest building surviving on this street.
The street is the Koya Kaido. Three roads of that name ran south toward Mount Koya and converged in what is now Kawachinagano; from there a single road climbed into the mountains toward Wakayama. Mikkaichi sat at roughly the halfway point between Osaka and Koyasan, so a post town formed there, with inns for pilgrims and an official honjin, Aburaya, for daimyo and bannermen. Traffic came for Kanshinji and Kongoji as well as for Koyasan.
The storehouse belongs to the later part of that story. The national database places it in the closing decades of the Edo period, between 1830 and 1867. Kawachinagano City takes a more cautious line: the date of construction is unknown, but the structure suggests something later than the main house, and the city offers the second half of the nineteenth century as an estimate. The two accounts overlap without matching exactly, and the honest summary is that the building is later than the house and probably nineteenth century.
Registered for the Street It Makes
Registration as a Tangible Cultural Property is the lighter of Japan's two protection systems. Designation as a National Treasure or Important Cultural Property is older and stricter, restricting alteration and covering a limited number of properties. Registration was introduced by a 1996 amendment to the Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties: owners notify rather than seek permission when making changes, so buildings stay in use. It was created to reach the older domestic and commercial stock that was vanishing before it could be recorded.
The main house was assessed under criterion (2), covering works that serve as a model of design. This storehouse was assessed under criterion (1), covering works that contribute to the historic landscape of the country, and the Agency's summary ends on precisely that point: together with the main house it forms the street scene of the former post town.
That phrasing sets the terms for looking at it. A storehouse is a utilitarian container, and this one is small. What it does is hold the north end of the Yagi frontage and give the street a vertical white mass where the low tiled roofs would otherwise run on unbroken. Remove it and the main house would still be a fine eighteenth-century townhouse; the street would be measurably poorer.
There is also a discrepancy in the records worth noting. The national database describes the building as dozo earthen-wall construction of two storeys, while the city describes it as timber-framed, two storeys. These are not really in conflict, since a dozo is a timber frame buried under thick earth and plaster, but readers comparing the two sources should know the wording differs.
What to Look For
The building is privately owned and closed to visitors. It is designed, however, to be read from the street, and its gable end does most of the work.
Roof first. The covering is hongawara, the older tiling system in which broad flat tiles are laid side by side and rounded tiles cover the joints between them. It is heavier and more expensive than the pantile used on the main roof of the house next door, and on a storehouse it signals a building meant to last and meant to be seen.
Then the wall surface, which comes in two bands. The upper part is white lime plaster, applied smooth over the earth core. The lower part, the koshi or skirt, is faced with charred cedar boarding. Charring the surface of cedar is an old Japanese method of weatherproofing: the burnt layer resists rot and insects and needs no chemical treatment. It also produces a deep, matt black. White above, black below, in a hard horizontal line. That contrast is the building's whole composition, and it reads from a hundred metres down the road.
Now the openings. One window on each floor, both on the gable end facing the street, each fitted with a hung copper door. On the lower window a small plaster-finished hood projects above the opening to throw rainwater clear of the sill. Storehouses are usually reticent about windows; putting two of them on the public face, and dressing them in copper, is a decision about appearance as much as about ventilation.
Finally, compare the two buildings side by side. The main house runs long and low along the road, entered from its flank. The storehouse turns ninety degrees and goes up. One horizontal, one vertical; one grey tile and timber lattice, one white plaster and black board. The pairing is what the assessment means by the street scene of the post town.
Seeing it
The storehouse is not open and there is no visitor facility. It is looked at from the Koya Kaido, on foot.
Start from Mikkaichicho Station on the Nankai Koya Line and follow the old road north toward Kawachinagano Station, one stop away. Nearby stand the temples Shinkyoji and Gatsurinji, the site of the Aburaya honjin, and a roadside marker recording eight ri still to travel to Mount Koya. The former Mikkaichi police box of 1952, described locally as the oldest surviving timber police post in Osaka Prefecture and made a municipally designated cultural property in October 2010, is reported to open on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays from 10:00 to 16:00 with free admission, and is one of the few interiors on this street that can actually be entered.
Kawachinagano's heritage was recognised under the Japan Heritage programme in June 2020, in a narrative built around the Koya Kaido and the temples of Kanshinji and Kongoji. Bicycles and a route map are available from the tourist information office at Kawachinagano Station.
Details of opening days and charges come from published local sources and may since have changed; confirm before you travel. And bear in mind that the people who own these buildings live in them.
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Q&A
- What is charred cedar boarding for?
- Scorching the surface of cedar planks creates a carbonised layer that resists rot, insects and weather without chemical preservatives. In Japan it has long been used on the lower parts of walls, where splashing rain does the most damage. The finish is matt black and needs occasional renewal.
- Why does this building face the road with its gable when the house does not?
- A townhouse wants a wide frontage for trade, so it is entered from the long side. A storehouse needs no shopfront and sits on whatever space is left, usually a narrow strip beside or behind the house. Turning the gable to the street is the efficient use of that strip, and it gives the building a tall, compact public face.
- When exactly was it built?
- No documented date exists. The national database records the closing Edo decades, 1830 to 1867. Kawachinagano City states the date is unknown and estimates the second half of the nineteenth century from the construction. Both agree it postdates the main house.
- Can I look inside?
- No. The property is privately owned and occupied, with no public opening. Please view it from the road and respect the residents' privacy.
- Is this connected to the Yagi House designed by Fujii Koji?
- No. That house stands at Korien in Neyagawa, was completed in 1930, and belonged to a different Yagi family. A third Yagi House, in Mibu in Kyoto, relates to the Shinsengumi. The three share a surname and nothing else.
Basic Information
| Name | Yagi House Storehouse (Yagike Jutaku Dozo) |
|---|---|
| Classification | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure), registration number 27-0520 |
| Registration date | 23 October 2008; notice published 10 November 2008 (61st round of registrations) |
| Registration criterion | Criterion (1): contributing to the historic landscape of the country |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Date of construction | Late Edo period. National database: 1830-1867. Kawachinagano City records the date as unknown and estimates the second half of the nineteenth century. |
| Structure | National database: dozo earthen-wall construction, two storeys, tile roof; building area 23 m2. City record: timber-framed, two storeys, 6 m along the ridge by 4 m across. |
| Form | Gable roof in hongawara tile, gable end presented to the road |
| Wall finish | White lime plaster above; charred cedar boarding to the skirt |
| Openings | One window per floor on the street gable, each with a hung copper door; plaster hood over the lower window |
| Position | North of the main house |
| Family business | Cotton wholesaler, later sake brewer; shop name Togeya |
| Category | Tertiary industry / building |
| Owner | Private individual |
| Address | 1109 Mikkaichi-cho, Kawachinagano City, Osaka Prefecture |
| Access | Mikkaichicho Station, Nankai Koya Line; on the Koya Kaido in the former Mikkaichi post town |
| Public access | Private property, not open to the public. Exterior viewing from the road only. |
| Related registered element | Main building (27-0519) |
References
- National Database of Cultural Properties, Agency for Cultural Affairs: Yagi House Storehouse
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00007399
- National Database of Cultural Properties, Agency for Cultural Affairs: Yagi House Main Building
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00007398
- Kawachinagano City: Nationally Registered Cultural Property, Yagi House Main Building (includes the storehouse)
- https://www.city.kawachinagano.lg.jp/site/history/5630.html
- Kawachinagano Tourism Navi: Site of the Mikkaichi Post Town
- https://kankou-kawachinagano.jp/spot/1661
- Japan Heritage: Kawachinagano, a Town Where You Can Meet the Middle Ages
- https://nihon-isan.kankou-kawachinagano.jp/
Last verified: 2026.07.22