Asahiya Hara Pharmacy Storehouse

Asahiya Hara Pharmacy Storehouse

The Asahiya Hara Pharmacy Storehouse (朝日屋原薬局土蔵, Asahiya Hara Yakkyoku Dozō) is a two-story clay-walled storehouse built in 1912 behind the main house, near the middle of the long, narrow Asahiya Hara Pharmacy estate in Honcho 2-chome, Shiki City, Saitama Prefecture, and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on July 1, 2003.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs lists its structure as Dozo-zukuri, and its description calls it a timber building; both are right, since a dozo is a timber frame wrapped in thick clay. The ridge runs east to west under a gabled roof of pantiles, partly replaced with sheet metal. The entrance is in the long south wall in the Hirairi manner, sheltered by a lean-to Geya canopy. The building area is 35 square meters.

It went up in the same year as the main house, when the business moved to this site.

Why It Was Registered

The Asahiya Hara Pharmacy Storehouse was registered as a model of design. The Agency for Cultural Affairs draws attention to the walls: carefully finished white Shikkui plaster above, and a base course of brick below. It reads this as the period's way of bringing modern design into a traditional building method.

In late Meiji Kanto, brick was still a new material, associated with factories, railways and government buildings. Laid at the foot of a storehouse, it toughens the part of the wall that takes the splash of rain and draws a red band beneath the white. Traditional form, modern material only where it counts: the pairing says a good deal about the taste of a prosperous town merchant around 1912.

What to Look For

The seam between plaster and brick is the heart of this building. Above, a smooth white surface; below, red brick with its grid of joints. The change of material is also a change of texture.

The door faces south under its canopy. Given its position directly behind the shop, it probably held stock and household goods, although no public record lists what was kept inside.

Asahiya dealt in paints, dyes, chemicals, beer and glass among much else. Seen as the back room of that trade, the storehouse's place at the center of the estate makes sense.

Visiting the Storehouse

The Asahiya Hara Pharmacy Storehouse is privately owned and not open to the public. Standing in the middle of the plot behind the main house, it is barely visible from the street, and you cannot enter the grounds.

The parts of Asahiya Hara Pharmacy you can see from outside are mainly the main house and the gate and wall on the street. Directions are on the Asahiya Hara Pharmacy page.