A Storehouse With Tatami in It
Fujita Family Residence South Storehouse (藤田家住宅南蔵, Fujita-ke Jutaku Minami-gura) is a two-storey earthen-walled storehouse at 154 Gotsu-cho in Gotsu City, Shimane Prefecture, built in the early Meiji period and listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 8 January 2009. It stands south of the North Storehouse on the plot across Honmachi Street from the Fujita main house, its ridge running north to south.
At 82 square metres it is the largest of the three storehouses on that plot, and the most elaborately finished. The roof is gabled and covered in Sekishu red tile, with lean-to roofs added along the east and west flanks. The walls are white lime plaster over the earthen core.
The interior is where the building departs from what the word storehouse usually promises. Each floor is divided into three rooms. The two southern rooms on the ground floor are floored with tatami. A kura with matting instead of boards is not built purely to hold goods; the thick earthen walls that keep damp and fire away from merchandise also make a quiet, temperate room, and merchant families across Japan put that quality to use for guests, for valuables that needed handling rather than stacking, and sometimes for living.
The Gable as a Public Face
The south gable is the reason to walk around the building. On the ground floor there is a projecting latticed window, an degoshi, of the kind normally found on the street front of a townhouse rather than on a warehouse. Above it, worked into the plaster, sits the Fujita family crest.
The Agency for Cultural Affairs description explains the arrangement in a single phrase: the composition is conscious of the shrine approach that runs to the south. In other words, this face of the building was designed to be seen by people walking to and from a place of worship. It carries a name, a level of finish and a piece of decoration that the other three walls do not.
That deserves a moment's thought, because it inverts the usual reading of a storehouse. The dozo is normally the plain, defensive, back-of-the-plot building, the one that exists to survive fires. Here the household turned one of its storehouses into a piece of frontage, and did so on the side facing the sacred route rather than the commercial street. The registration criterion applied to all eight Fujita structures, contribution to the historic landscape of the nation, fits this building with unusual precision, since the building was itself built with the landscape in mind.
The shrine that anchors this part of Honmachi is Yamanobe Shrine, recorded in the tenth-century Engishiki register and said in temple tradition to have received a divided spirit from Isonokami Shrine in Yamato in 652. Its July festival, known locally as the Gotsu Gion or Horan'e, counts among the three great festivals of the Iwami region. Precisely which approach the ACA text refers to is not stated in the record, so treat the connection to Yamanobe Shrine as likely rather than confirmed.
What You Can See, and How to Get There
The Fujita property is a private residence. Nothing inside is open to visitors, there are no hours and no admission charge, and the tatami rooms described above are not accessible. What you can do is walk the public roads around the plot and read the building from outside, which in this case gives you the part that matters most: the south gable with its lattice and crest.
Photography from the road is unrestricted. Please stay off the private ground and avoid approaching doors and windows.
Reaching Gotsu Honmachi takes about twenty minutes on foot from JR Gotsu Station on the San'in Main Line, a walk of roughly 1.5 kilometres south towards the mouth of the Gonokawa, or a short local bus ride to the Gotsu Honmachi stop. The neighbouring buildings on the same plot repay attention: the North Storehouse immediately to the north has a frame of three tiers of beams over a heavy tie beam carrying an exposed underside to the roof, and the East Storehouse sits at the street corner beyond it. Across Honmachi Street stand the main house of 1853, the front gate and the boundary wall, both dating from the closing decades of the Edo period.
Give yourself an hour for the wider district. The former Gotsu Town Hall of 1926 has been reworked into the Iraka Kaido community hall, the former Gotsu Post Office survives in Meiji pseudo-Western style with stained glass, and along the Honmachi River channel you can still find the tethering stones used for the oxen and horses that carried cargo up from the wharves.
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Q&A
- Can I go inside the Fujita Family Residence South Storehouse?
- No. The building is part of a private residence and is not opened to the public. There are no visiting hours and no admission fee. The exterior, including the decorated south gable, can be seen and photographed from the public road.
- Why does the Fujita Family Residence South Storehouse have tatami rooms?
- The two southern rooms on the ground floor are matted. Thick earthen walls give a storehouse steady temperature and humidity and strong fire resistance, and merchant households often used that environment for reception rooms or for goods requiring careful handling rather than bulk stacking.
- What should I look at on the Fujita Family Residence South Storehouse?
- The south gable end. It carries a projecting latticed window on the ground floor and the family crest worked into the plaster above, features that face the shrine approach running south rather than the commercial street.
- How large is the Fujita Family Residence South Storehouse?
- The floor area is 82 square metres over two storeys of earthen-walled construction, making it the largest of the three storehouses on the plot west of Honmachi Street. Each floor holds three rooms.
- How do I get to the Fujita Family Residence South Storehouse?
- The address is 154 Gotsu-cho, Gotsu City, Shimane Prefecture. From JR Gotsu Station the walk south into the Honmachi district takes about twenty minutes, roughly 1.5 kilometres, and a local bus also stops at Gotsu Honmachi.
Basic Information
| Name | Fujita Family Residence South Storehouse (藤田家住宅南蔵) |
|---|---|
| Location | 154 Gotsu-cho, Gotsu City, Shimane Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structures), registration no. 32-0091 |
| Year Designated | Registered 8 January 2009; announced 22 January 2009 (62nd registration round) |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Floor area 82 sq m; two-storey earthen-walled construction, tiled roof |
| Owner | Private (not listed in the Agency for Cultural Affairs database) |
| Public Access | Exterior visible from the public road; interior closed to visitors |
References
- National Cultural Properties Database, Agency for Cultural Affairs: Fujita Family Residence South Storehouse
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00007541
- National Cultural Properties Database, Agency for Cultural Affairs: Fujita Family Residence North Storehouse
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00007540
- Gotsu City: Tenryo Gotsu Honmachi Iraka Kaido
- https://www.city.gotsu.lg.jp/soshiki/4/4657.html
- Shimane Prefecture Official Tourism Site: Yamanobe Shrine
- https://www.kankou-shimane.com/destination/46870
- Gotsu City Tourism Association: Gotsu Honmachi Iraka Kaido
- https://gotsu-kanko.jp/kankou/rekishi/irakakaido
Last verified: 2026.08.05