The Oldest Building on the Plot
The Amagai Family Residence Storehouse (天海家住宅土蔵, Amagai-ke Jūtaku Dozō) is a two-storey dozō storehouse of 1895 in Kauemon-chō, Tochigi City, Tochigi Prefecture, added to the national roll of Registered Tangible Cultural Properties (登録有形文化財) in February 2004. It stands west of the main house at the deep end of the plot, its ridge running east to west.
It predates the other two registered Amagai buildings by twenty-nine years. The shop on the highway and the house behind it both date from 1924, which means that when the family rebuilt the front of their property in the Taishō era, the storehouse stayed where it was. That is the usual pattern. A dozō was the most expensive structure a merchant family put up and the one least likely to be replaced, since its thick earthen walls held everything worth protecting from fire.
The measurements are neat. Five bays by two and a half, about 9.1 by 4.5 metres, giving a building area of roughly 41 square metres that corresponds almost exactly to the frame dimensions. A gable roof in sangawara pantile covers it. On the south side a canopy shelters an earth-floored working strip, and two windows are set into the upper storey.
Two Storehouses Under One Roof
The interior is divided into two rooms, and the division is the reason this building repays close attention.
The eastern room is a bunkogura, a store for documents, ledgers and other paper valuables, and it is entered from the gable end. The western room is a nigura, a goods store for merchandise and household stock, and it is entered from the long side. A single structure therefore carries two different entry orientations, tsumairi at one end and hirairi along the flank, each chosen for what the room behind it was meant to hold.
The logic is practical. Documents came out rarely and needed the tightest possible seal, so a single door at the end of the building served. Merchandise moved constantly, and a door on the long side opening onto the covered earth floor let goods be carried in and out without tracking through the rest of the store. Registration was granted under the criterion of being a model of design, and this economy of planning is much of the case.
There is also a name. Ink writing found on the structure identifies the master carpenter as Hayakawa Tatsuzō (早川辰造). Attributions of this kind are uncommon for buildings of this class. Most surviving Meiji-era storehouses in Japan are anonymous, their builders known only as a regional style, and a legible inscription giving the tōryō in charge turns an ordinary storehouse into a documented one.
The storehouse carries registration number 09-0094 and was entered in the fortieth round of registrations.
What You Can See, and What You Cannot
This is the hardest of the three Amagai buildings to see. It sits at the back of a deep plot, behind both the shop and the main house, and it is privately owned with no public access, no admission and no opening hours. The interior division that gives the building its interest is not visible from anywhere a visitor can stand.
That is worth saying plainly before anyone plans a trip around it. Come to Kauemon-chō for the street rather than for this one structure, and read the storehouse as part of a merchant plot whose front you can actually inspect.
Getting there: Tochigi Station on the JR Ryōmō Line and the Tōbu Nikkō Line is about 1.6 kilometres to the south, a walk of some twenty minutes, and Shin-Tochigi Station on the Tōbu Nikkō Line lies roughly a kilometre northeast. Bicycles can be rented in the city centre. Photography from the public road is unrestricted, but the plot is a home and its privacy should be respected.
For storehouses you can enter, the wider district offers alternatives. Kauemon-chō was designated an Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings in July 2012, the first in Tochigi Prefecture, and covers about 9.6 hectares with some 92 traditional structures, among them shop-fronted misegura and stone storehouses built between the late Edo period and the early Shōwa years. The guidance centre two hundred metres north of the Amagai plot, housed in a former miso works, has displays on how these buildings were made and can point visitors towards the ones that open their doors. Its opening days vary through the year.
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Q&A
- Where is the Amagai Family Residence Storehouse and how do I get there?
- It stands in Kauemon-chō, Tochigi City, Tochigi Prefecture, at the rear of a plot facing the former Nikkō Reiheishi Kaidō, west of the main house. Tochigi Station on the JR Ryōmō Line and the Tōbu Nikkō Line is about 1.6 kilometres south, roughly twenty minutes on foot; Shin-Tochigi Station on the Tōbu Nikkō Line is about a kilometre northeast.
- Can visitors enter the Amagai Family Residence Storehouse?
- No. It is privately owned with no public access, no admission fee and no opening hours. It also stands at the back of a deep plot behind the shop and main house, so it is largely hidden from the road.
- How is the interior of the Amagai Family Residence Storehouse arranged?
- It is divided into two rooms. The eastern room is a bunkogura for documents and papers, entered from the gable end, and the western room is a nigura for merchandise and stock, entered from the long side. The two entry orientations suit the different ways each room was used.
- Who built the Amagai Family Residence Storehouse?
- Ink writing on the structure names the master carpenter as Hayakawa Tatsuzō. Named builders are rare for storehouses of this period, most of which survive without any record of who made them.
- How old is the Amagai Family Residence Storehouse compared with the other buildings on the site?
- It dates from 1895, twenty-nine years earlier than the shop and main house, which were both built in 1924. It survived the rebuilding of the front of the property, as fireproof storehouses commonly did.
Basic Information
| Name | Amagai Family Residence Storehouse (天海家住宅土蔵) |
|---|---|
| Location | Kauemon-chō 5 and others, Tochigi City, Tochigi Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structures), registration no. 09-0094 |
| Year Designated | Registered 17 February 2004; notified 4 March 2004 (40th round) |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Dozō construction, two storeys, tiled roof; building area approx. 41 m². Frame of 5 by 2.5 bays, gable roof in sangawara pantile, canopy over an earth floor to the south |
| Owner | Private |
| Public Access | Not open; largely hidden from the public road |
References
- National Cultural Properties Database, Agency for Cultural Affairs: Amagai Family Residence Storehouse
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00003791
- Cultural Properties of Tochigi Prefecture: Amagai Family Residence Storehouse
- https://bunkazai.pref.tochigi.lg.jp/cultural/【天海家住宅土蔵】/
- Tochigi City: Kauemon-chō Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings
- https://www.city.tochigi.lg.jp/soshiki/5/1568.html
- Tochigi City Tourism Database Kura Navi: Kauemon-chō Preservation District
- https://www.tochigi-city-kura-navi.jp/spot/page.php?id=31
Last verified: 2026.08.04