Takasagoya (Castle Town Tottori Community Center)

A Cotton Merchant's House in Motodaiku-cho

Takasagoya (高砂屋, also known as the Castle Town Tottori Community Center or Joka-machi Tottori Koryukan) is a Meiji-period merchant house in Motodaiku-cho, Tottori City, whose six buildings, the Shop Wing, the Residential Wing, three storehouses and a side gate, were entered as Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 31 July 2007.

Takasagoya was the trading name of the Ikeuchi family, who dealt in cotton. According to the Tottori City Cultural Foundation, which runs the house today, the family moved here from Zaimoku-cho around the middle of the Meiji era and set up shop beside the Yagenbori, a moat that once ran along this street. The owners later gave the buildings and land to Tottori City, and the city reopened them as a public meeting place for the old castle town, keeping the family trading name as its nickname.

The family's roots in Tottori go back further. The city's tourism site describes the Ikeuchi as purveyors who came to Tottori with the daimyo Ikeda Mitsumasa. Sources disagree on the year, so it is safest to say simply that the family arrived early in the domain period.

Central Tottori was badly damaged by the 1943 earthquake and again by the great fire of 1952. Takasagoya came through both, and the tourism site singles it out as one of very few merchant houses downtown where shop, storehouses and garden still survive together.

Its survival was not a given. In 2003 a citizens' group petitioned the city assembly after a road-widening plan for Motodaiku-cho street threatened the Ikeuchi house, noting that a post-war widening had already forced the family to move the building once. The national database records that the Shop Wing and the Residential Wing were moved again by Hikiya in 2004, which appears to be how the pair reached their present footprint.

How the Property Is Laid Out

Two wings face the street: the Shop Wing on the east and the Residential Wing on the west, together forming the main house. The Residential Wing stands about half a Ken closer to the road, so from the pavement the two eaves lines do not quite meet.

At the eastern end of the frontage a small side gate closes off the space between the street and the garden. It is roofed with the same tiles as the main house, and from a few paces back the house seems to run straight into it.

Behind the main house lies a garden, and beyond it three earthen storehouses. Storehouse No. 1 on the east is really two storehouses joined at the front, Storehouse No. 2 sits in the middle and Storehouse No. 3 stands toward the west. Nos. 1 and 3 are entered from the gable end (Tsumairi), No. 2 from its long side (Hirairi), and the alternating orientation gives the back of the property a lively, uneven rhythm.

The dates spread across two eras. The Residential Wing and Storehouse No. 3 belong to the early Meiji period, the Shop Wing and Storehouse No. 1 to late Meiji, and Storehouse No. 2 and the side gate to the early Showa years, a record of a business that kept adding buildings as it went.

The Six Registered Buildings

All six were registered on the same day, 31 July 2007, in the 55th round of registrations, and carry consecutive numbers from 31-0104 to 31-0109. Each was listed for contributing to the historic landscape of the country. Tottori Prefecture's own heritage database groups them as a single entry.

• Shop Wing (31-0104): late Meiji, wooden, 2 storeys, building area 135 square metres
• Residential Wing (31-0105): early Meiji, wooden, 2 storeys, building area 85 square metres
• Storehouse No. 1 (31-0106): late Meiji, earthen storehouse, 2 storeys, building area 70 square metres
• Storehouse No. 2 (31-0107): early Showa, earthen storehouse, 2 storeys, building area 23 square metres
• Storehouse No. 3 (31-0108): early Meiji, earthen storehouse, 2 storeys, building area 18 square metres
• Side Gate (31-0109): early Showa, wooden, 2.6 metres wide

Construction details and what to look for in each building are covered on the individual pages.

Opening Hours and Getting There

Takasagoya is run by the Tottori City Cultural Foundation and admission is free. It is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with last entry at 4:30 p.m., and closes on Mondays (the following day when Monday is a public holiday) and over the New Year break, 29 December to 3 January. The paid rental rooms upstairs stay available until 9 p.m.

Inside are the earthen-floored shop, the merchant's counter and a rest room for visitors. Upstairs, a tatami room, two wooden-floored rooms, a tea room and a former storage room are let out for meetings; the city tourism site says visitors may look at them free of charge when they are not booked. Two of the storehouse spaces are used as exhibition rooms under the names Hosai-gura and the Kazai-gura Gallery, with changing displays.

The official site says nothing either way about photography. Shooting the exterior from the street should pose no problem, but it is courteous to check at the reception desk before photographing the interiors or the exhibitions.

The house is about a 20-minute walk north of JR Tottori Station, or roughly 10 minutes by car. Alternatively, take the 100-yen Kururi loop bus (red route) from the station to the Kakedashi-machi stop, about 5 minutes away on foot. There is on-site parking.