Yoshida Family Residence Storehouse

What is the Yoshida Family Residence Storehouse?

The Yoshida Family Residence Storehouse (吉田家住宅土蔵, Yoshida-ke Jūtaku Dozō) is a storehouse for household implements built in the late Taishō era (1919 to 1926) in Futakuchi, Imizu City, Toyama Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property of Japan on August 7, 2023.

It is a 2-storey earthen-walled building (Dozo-zukuri) of 42 square meters, raised on a platform southeast of the main house. The gabled pan-tile roof (Sangawara-buki) is entered on the long side and set on as a separate okiyane (Okiyane), with the ridge running north to south.

The agency's data give the period as early Shōwa but the date as late Taishō, 1919 to 1926. Either way, it belongs to the years when Taishō turned into Shōwa.

Why the Yoshida Family Residence Storehouse was registered

The Yoshida Family Residence Storehouse was registered as a model of design, the only one of the estate's four structures listed under that heading.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs sums it up as a storehouse with a distinctly modern character: a traditional form, but with modern materials and finishes at the base of the walls and at the openings. Built about half a century after the Meiji main house and stone storehouse, it shows how storehouse building on the same estate had moved on.

Plaster walls, a pebbled base and iron doors

The walls of the Yoshida Family Residence Storehouse are finished in lime plaster (Shikkui), while the lower band of wall is mortar given an araidashi, or washed, finish. In this technique the surface is rinsed before the mortar fully sets, exposing the small stones mixed into it and leaving a rough, pebbly texture.

The openings are closed with iron doors instead of the thick, clay-packed doors of older storehouses. Read the wall from top to bottom and you pass three materials in turn: smooth white plaster, pebbled mortar and steel.

Two plank-floored rooms and a west entrance

The door of the Yoshida Family Residence Storehouse is on the west, sheltered by a lean-to (Geya). Inside, each floor is a single room with a plank floor, and a stair rises in the northwest corner. The agency's photographs include the upper-floor roof frame (Roof frame).

Compare it with the stone storehouse on the same estate. Both run north to south, both carry a separate roof, and both open to the west, so the later builder kept the orientation and roof type of the Meiji store. The difference is inside: the stone storehouse has an earthen ground floor for rice, while this one is floored in planks throughout, built for implements and furnishings.

Visiting the Yoshida Family Residence Storehouse

The Yoshida Family Residence Storehouse stands southeast of the main house, toward the back of the estate. We could not confirm how much of it is visible from the street, or whether its plank-floored interior and roof frame are shown to visitors.

A 2023 Imizu City record said the estate was to open to the public, but current opening days, fees and photography rules are unconfirmed. Ask before visiting, and stay off the property on other days. Directions are on the Yoshida Family Residence page.