Former Yoshioka Residence Storehouse: A Clay Kura That Learned to Look Like Stone
Run a hand along the wall of this small building and the surface reads as masonry. Cut stone, neatly jointed. It is not. Underneath the render lies a timber-framed storehouse of the 1880s, and the stonework is mortar, washed back while still green to expose the aggregate, with the joint lines scored in by hand.
The kura stands southwest of the main house in Shimizu, Higashiyamato, facing east across the yard. The Agency for Cultural Affairs records it as roughly 7.3 metres along the ridge and 4.5 metres across the span, two storeys in timber, gabled, roofed in sheet iron, with a building area of 33 square metres. Local measurements give the frontage as 4.54 metres and the depth as 7.28 metres, about ten tsubo in old reckoning. The two sets of figures describe the same box from opposite sides.
Its date is put at around 1884, which makes it a few years older than the main house it serves. Ikeya Tōemon, headman of the farming village that then occupied this ground, built it as a conventional dozō: thick earthen walls over a timber frame, the standard fireproof strongbox of rural Japan. The Agency assigns the remodelling of the exterior to the early Shōwa period, between 1926 and 1945. Local research narrows the reasoning without pinning the date: the render is thought to have gone on after the walls suffered in the Great Kantō Earthquake of 1923, though no document confirms it.
The painter Yoshioka Kenji (1906-1990) bought the property in 1944 and lived here until his death. The storehouse came with the deal.
Why a Farm Shed Ended Up on the National Register
The storehouse was registered as a Tangible Cultural Property on 2 May 2017, number 13-0376, alongside the main house, the nagayamon and the inner gate. The criterion cited is the usual one for this category: the building contributes to the historic landscape of the country.
That phrasing sounds soft, and the register behind it is deliberately light-handed. Introduced in 1996, it was built for exactly this kind of structure. A National Treasure listing would be absurd here; a designation as an Important Cultural Property would impose obligations no small municipality would welcome and would freeze a building whose interest lies partly in having been altered. Registration asks only that changes be notified, and lets the fabric stay in use.
What the Agency singles out is the exterior. The roof is an oki-yane, a separate cover set over the storehouse proper rather than framed into it, a form common across the Musashino and Tama districts. The doorway and window openings carry double-leaf fire doors of the traditional kind. The walls are the mortar wash described above. The result is a building that keeps the discipline of the old dozō while wearing a skin borrowed from Western masonry, and it does so in what was, in the 1920s and 1930s, still farmland. That collision of technique is the point of the listing.
The rebuild also treated the frame with care. Local surveys report the posts and beams in good condition, which is why the exterior repair reads as a repair rather than a replacement.
Two Things to Look For
The first is on the gable, high up: a crest reading 山藤, mountain and wisteria. The wisteria character is the fuji of Ikeya Tōemon. The painter's family kept it there for forty-six years without erasing it, so the building still carries the mark of the man who paid for it.
The second requires knowing what never happened. Yoshioka wanted to turn the storehouse into a second atelier, and he described the plan in a monthly magazine. Strip out the upper floor. Glaze the entire south wall. Throw a wide terrace of Ōya stone out in front of it, and beyond that dig a rectangular pond, so that on moonlit nights the water would throw ripples of light across the ceiling. Old oaks ring the building, he added, and the winter sun would draw interesting shadows inside.
None of it was built. The upper floor is still there, boarded, and the south wall is still rendered. Standing in front of a plain iron-roofed shed while holding that description in your head is an odd and rather moving experience, and it is the best reason to seek this building out rather than walk past it.
Practical note: the site is not normally open. Higashiyamato City manages the whole property as a future memorial museum and opens it for a few days in spring and again in autumn, admission free. The storehouse is viewed from outside. Musashi-Yamato Station on the Seibu Tamako Line is about five minutes away on foot.
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Q&A
- What is an oki-yane roof?
- A roof placed over a storehouse as a separate structure rather than built into its walls. It shields the earthen body from rain and can be repaired or replaced without disturbing the walls beneath. The form is common in the Musashino and Tama areas.
- Is the building actually made of stone?
- No. It is a timber-framed clay storehouse whose exterior was later finished in washed mortar, with joint lines scored to suggest coursed stone. The stone effect is entirely a surface treatment.
- When was the exterior changed?
- The Agency for Cultural Affairs dates the remodelling to 1926-1945. Local researchers suspect the walls were damaged in the 1923 Great Kantō Earthquake and repaired sometime afterwards, but no record has been found to confirm this.
- Can I go inside?
- The interior, two storeys and boarded throughout, is not part of the public route. During the twice-yearly openings the storehouse is seen from the yard, with the main house and the gates.
- Are the other buildings on the plot also registered?
- Yes. The main house and atelier (13-0375), this storehouse (13-0376), the nagayamon gate (13-0377) and the inner gate (13-0378) were all registered on 2 May 2017 and are all owned by Higashiyamato City.
Basic Information
| Name | Former Yoshioka Residence Storehouse (旧吉岡家住宅蔵) |
|---|---|
| Location | 779-4 Shimizu 3-chōme, Higashiyamato, Tokyo |
| Category | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure) |
| Registration date | 2 May 2017 (86th round); registration no. 13-0376 |
| Criterion | Contributing to the historic landscape of the nation |
| Count | 1 building |
| Date | c. 1884; exterior remodelled 1926-1945 |
| Structure | Timber, two storeys, sheet-iron roof; building area 33 m² (ridge 7.3 m, span 4.5 m) |
| Owner | Higashiyamato City |
| Access | Approx. 5 min. walk from Musashi-Yamato Station, Seibu Tamako Line |
| Opening | Not normally open; special openings in spring and autumn, exterior viewing, admission free |
| Enquiries | Higashiyamato City Local Museum, Tel. 042-567-4800 |
References
- 国指定文化財等データベース「旧吉岡家住宅蔵」（文化庁）
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00011482
- 文化遺産オンライン「旧吉岡家住宅蔵」
- https://online.bunka.go.jp/heritages/detail/245228
- 国登録有形文化財 旧吉岡家住宅（東大和市公式ホームページ）
- https://www.city.higashiyamato.lg.jp/bunkasports/museum/1006099/1006100.html
- 旧吉岡家住宅（国登録有形文化財）｜東大和の博物館・文化財情報
- https://higashiyamato.net/ecomuseum/yukeibunkazai
Last verified: 2026.07.15