Tachikawa Yoshimura Family Residence Kitchen Storehouse

What the Tachikawa Yoshimura Family Residence Kitchen Storehouse Is

The Tachikawa Yoshimura Family Residence Kitchen Storehouse (立川吉村家住宅勝手蔵, Tachikawa Yoshimura-ke Jūtaku Kattegura) is a mid-Meiji storehouse range in Tachikawa-cho, Tottori City, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on July 23, 1998.

It fills the northeast corner of the Yoshimura compound and is a 2-storey timber building with a tiled roof and a footprint of 124 square meters. Though registered as one building, it combines three parts: a storehouse for daily goods, a miso store on the east and, between them, a room once used by the maids.

Katte refers to the kitchen and the domestic work around it, which is why we translate the name as Kitchen Storehouse.

Household Life Behind the Kitchen Storehouse

The Tachikawa Yoshimura Family Residence Kitchen Storehouse faces inward, toward the compound, with an earthen-floored pent roof (Tsuchibisashi) on its inner side. Its working face looks onto the yard, and its back is turned to the outside.

A store for everyday goods, a miso store and a room used by the maids all stand in one row, keeping the kitchen supplies and the people who handled them in one place, and the Agency for Cultural Affairs calls the building essential for understanding one side of a wealthy merchant family's life.

Like its neighbors, it was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape.

What to Look For: A Boarded Wall on the Lane

The outer walls are finished in Shikkui lime plaster and then covered with vertical boards. This boarded face is what passers-by see, and the Agency credits it with keeping the lane tidy and consistent.

Since the building faces inward, the wall on the lane is technically its back. Covering it in boards rather than leaving bare plaster shows some care for how the compound presented itself to the street.

Because the storehouse, miso store and maids' room run under one continuous roofline, the building reads from outside as a single long block.

Seeing the Tachikawa Yoshimura Family Residence Kitchen Storehouse

No interior opening has been announced for the Tachikawa Yoshimura Family Residence Kitchen Storehouse. Its inner face, with the earthen-floored pent roof, looks into the compound and cannot be seen from outside.

What you can see is the boarded outer wall along the lane and the road. The lane is used daily by local residents, so walk quietly and do not touch the building.