Gallery ef Storehouse (Fuchikawa Metal Office)

An 1868 Storehouse That Survived Quake and War

The Gallery ef Storehouse (Fuchikawa Metal Office) (ギャラリー・エフ蔵（株式会社淵川金属事務所）) is the storehouse of a timber merchant of 1868 in Kaminarimon, Taito Ward, Tokyo, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) on December 11, 1998 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency records a two-storey fireproof storehouse with a tiled roof, covering 20 square metres; registration number 13-0050.

The Storehouse of a Riverside Timber Merchant

Gallery ef Storehouse is the former storehouse of a timber merchant by the Sumida River; an ink inscription under a beam on the upper floor records the eighth month of 1868 and the third-generation Takeya Choshiro (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education says the area was known as Zaimokucho, the timber quarter, from the Edo to the Meiji era, and the storehouse held the household goods of Takeya, a large timber dealer. It is very solidly built, with thick posts and beams and fine plasterwork.

Why It Was Registered

The Agency registered it as hard to reproduce, a precious downtown storehouse that came through both the Great Kanto Earthquake and the war.

What to Look For

Look for the 1868 ink inscription under the upper-floor beam and the thick posts and beams (Agency for Cultural Affairs; Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education).

Visiting

It is now used as a gallery with a café (Agency for Cultural Affairs). According to the Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education, it is open all year except Tuesdays and occasional closures, from 11:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. (subject to change with exhibitions), free of charge.