Sano Family Residence Miso Storehouse

What Is the Sano Family Residence Miso Storehouse?

The Sano Family Residence Miso Storehouse (佐野家住宅味噌蔵, Sano-ke Jūtaku Misogura) is a two-storey earthen-walled storehouse built around 1900 in Onmadashi-machi, Takaoka City, Toyama Prefecture, and it was listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on April 21, 1998. It stands at the southern end of the row of four storehouses at the back of the Sano Family Residence and is the largest of them.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs lists the Sano Family Residence Miso Storehouse as a timber-framed building with a tiled roof and a building area of 49 square meters, registration number 16-0023. It is built as one piece with the furnishings storehouse to the north, and the brick firewall that closes the south side of the property is attached to its south wall.

Why the Sano Family Residence Miso Storehouse Was Registered

The Sano Family Residence Miso Storehouse was registered under the criterion of serving as a model of form. Its role is defined by the firewall joined to its south side.

Along the southern boundary, a brick firewall 5.6 meters high and 25 meters long runs from the street toward the back of the lot. The miso storehouse receives its far end, so the storehouse row and the firewall meet here. The corner where the compound's rear and southern lines of defense cross is held by this building.

The agency notes that the south side of the plan is irregular, following the shape of the lot. The builders gave up a neat rectangle to push the storehouse into the corner and leave no gap against the wall.

Highlights of the Sano Family Residence Miso Storehouse

The entrance of the Sano Family Residence Miso Storehouse is set toward the north end of its front. The agency calls one feature unusual: the fire door slides.

Storehouse fire doors are normally hinged, heavy slabs of plastered earth, and the double swinging doors are the familiar face of a Japanese storehouse. Here the door moves sideways instead. If the building really held heavy miso barrels that were moved in and out often, a sliding door needing no swing space would have been easier to work with, but no source explains the choice, so this remains a guess. It is still the clearest difference to look for when comparing it with the other three.

At 49 square meters it is more than twice the size of Storehouses No. 1 and No. 2, which cover 20 square meters each. The row grows from north to south and ends here.

Visiting the Sano Family Residence Miso Storehouse

The Sano Family Residence Miso Storehouse is not open to the public and cannot itself be seen from the street.

What is visible from the road is the street end of the southern firewall, which runs back toward the miso storehouse. The restaurant in the main house does not offer storehouse tours, so please stay off the private grounds and neighboring lots.