Matsumoto Family Residence Document Storehouse

About the Document Storehouse

The Matsumoto Family Residence Document Storehouse (松本家住宅文庫蔵, Matsumoto-ke Jūtaku Bunkogura) is a 2-story Dozo-zukuri earthen-walled storehouse built around 1907 in Chuo-cho, Mibu Town, Tochigi Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on June 21, 2013. It measures 7.3 m by 4.6 m, with a building area of 33 m², under a Kirizuma-zukuri gabled roof of Sangawara-buki pantiles.

Three storehouses of the same size stand in a row on the Matsumoto estate, and this one is at the west end, its ridge running north to south. In the Agency for Cultural Affairs database the other two are listed at 1319-15 and other lots in Chuo-cho, while the Document Storehouse alone carries a separate address, 1319-16.

A bunkogura, literally a library storehouse, is where a household kept its books, account ledgers, deeds and other records, along with valuables.

Why It Was Registered

The registration number is 09-0207, under the criterion of contributing to the historic landscape of the country. The Agency records that the Matsumoto Family Residence Document Storehouse was used for a period as a document store for a bank, among other purposes, and values it as a storehouse that served the everyday life of the town's residents.

A fireproof earthen storehouse was an obvious place for important papers in a town center. A building put up to protect one family's records spent part of its life guarding records that local finance depended on. That public role is part of what the registration recognizes.

What to Look For

The entrance is on the west face. Because the ridge runs north to south, the west side is a long eaves side, so this is a Hirairi entrance. The Grain Storehouse and the Living Quarters Storehouse next to it both open from the south gable end, in the Tsumairi manner, which makes the Document Storehouse the odd one out.

Windows are set in the north and south gable walls and fitted with pairs of Tsuchido, heavy earthen shutters, finished in Kakegonuri. In this technique the edges of the shutters and the window frame are plastered in matching steps, so that when closed they interlock and block any gap that fire could get through. The thick shutters opening left and right show the storehouse's fire defenses more plainly than anything else on it.

Same size, same roof, three buildings in a row, yet the doors and windows point in different directions according to what each held. Compare them side by side and the differences are easy to read.

Visiting

The Matsumoto Family Residence Document Storehouse stands within a private estate, and its interior is not open to the public. The grounds can be entered only during special openings.

The storehouse is the westernmost of the three, the one nearest the front gate and the street, but how much of its white walls and doorway can be seen from the public road has not been confirmed. Look and photograph only from the road. Access and opening information for the whole estate are on the Matsumoto Family Residence page.