Three Storehouses, One Roofline
The Ura Family Residence Front, Middle and Haze Storehouses (浦家住宅前蔵・中蔵及び櫨蔵, Ura-ke Jūtaku Maegura, Nakagura oyobi Hazegura) are a late Edo-period earthen-walled storehouse building in Hiro, Hirogawa Town, Arida District, Wakayama Prefecture, added to Japan's national register of Tangible Cultural Properties (Buildings) on 26 February 2021.
The name lists three storehouses, but the register counts one structure. Walk the lane that runs north to south past the Ura property and the reason becomes obvious: the three units share a continuous roof that turns a right angle, giving the block an L-shaped footprint. From the north they run Maegura (front storehouse), Nakagura (middle storehouse) and Hazegura. Total floor area is 117 square metres. Most of the block is two storeys; one part drops to a single storey. The roofs are kirizuma gables covered in sangawara pantiles.
Dating rests on construction character rather than a dated inscription. The Agency for Cultural Affairs places the building in the closing decades of the Edo period, roughly 1830 to 1868, and Wakayama Prefecture's cultural property register describes it as late Edo work. No ridge tag or dated document has been published that would pin the year more tightly.
The Ura family has held this ground for generations. Their trades ran through forestry, fertiliser, lime manufacture and coastal shipping, and in 1954 the family founded Chūō Kōgyō Co., Ltd., which still operates. Part of the main house now works as the company office. That continuity matters for how a visitor should approach the site, and the practical section below spells out what it means.
Why the Building Was Registered
Registration number 30-304 was granted in the 98th round of national registrations, under the criterion covering buildings that contribute to the historic landscape of the country. The registration system, introduced in 1996, is deliberately lighter than Important Cultural Property designation. It protects buildings roughly fifty years old or older through notification requirements rather than tight controls, which lets owners keep using them.
Four Ura buildings entered the register together after the Council for Cultural Affairs recommended them in November 2020: the main house, the retirement house (inkyoya), the document storehouse (bunkogura), and this three-part storehouse block. Read as a set, they cover a long span of building activity, with the storehouse block the oldest of the four and the main house and its annexes representing later Meiji, Taishō and early Shōwa work.
The technical interest sits in the details. Lower walls carry namako-kabe, the lattice of square tiles bedded in raised white plaster whose ridges suggested a sea cucumber to whoever named the technique. Plaster is carried up and out to the eaves edge, sealing the timber against fire. Three tomae, the recessed door bays that give access to a kura interior, open along the face, each sheltered by its own pent roof. Inside, floors are boarded and the walls lined with plank rather than finished in plaster.
The roof framing repays a closer look. Over the Maegura and Nakagura the builders left out rafters altogether and laid thick planks directly to form the roof sheathing. It is a heavy, simple solution, and one that suits a structure built to hold weight and resist fire rather than to be admired from within.
What to Look For, and Where You Are Standing
Hiro is not a neutral address. This is the old village of Hiromura, the ground where Hamaguchi Goryō organised the response to the Ansei Nankai earthquake and tsunami of 1854. The Hiromura Embankment he financed and built between 1855 and 1858 runs about 600 metres, roughly 20 metres wide at the base and 5 metres high, and was designated a National Historic Site in December 1938. It stands a few minutes' walk from the Ura property. The story of the burning rice sheaves that guided villagers to high ground, retold in English as "A Living God" by Lafcadio Hearn, belongs to these streets.
Set the storehouses in that frame and the plastered walls read differently. A merchant family in a village that had been drowned once built its stores to survive fire, damp and salt wind, and built them in the middle of the residential plot rather than at the edge.
The exterior is what a visitor can read. Look at where the namako-kabe stops and plain plaster takes over; the tiled section protects the zone most exposed to splashing and knocks. Compare the three door bays, which are not identical in width. Follow the roofline round the corner and watch the ridge step where the two-storey section meets the lower part.
One question invites itself. Haze is the Japanese wax tree, Toxicodendron succedaneum, whose berries were pressed for vegetable wax across Kii Province, and a storehouse named Hazegura suggests that trade. Neither the Agency for Cultural Affairs entry nor the prefectural description states what the building actually held, so the connection stays an inference rather than a documented fact.
Visiting: What Is and Is Not Possible
The Ura Family Residence is a private property in active use, with part of the main house serving the family company as an office. There is no admission desk, no opening hours and no interior access. Registration as a Tangible Cultural Property carries no obligation to admit the public, and none of the four registered Ura buildings is open.
What you can do is look from the public lane. The storehouse block sits within the residential plot, so the view is partial and oblique. Photography of the exterior from the street is ordinary practice in Japan, though stepping onto the property or photographing into the house is not. Treat the address the way you would treat any occupied home.
Getting there is straightforward. Yuasa Station on the JR Kisei Main Line (Kinokuni Line) is about a twenty-minute walk away, and the walk takes you through the old Hiromura district. Hirokawa Beach Station on the same line is closer to the coast but further from this neighbourhood. Drivers use the Yuasa interchange on the Hanwa Expressway.
Build the visit around what is open. The Inamura-no-Hi no Yakata museum at 671 Hiro covers the 1854 tsunami, Hamaguchi Goryō's life and modern disaster preparedness, with English signage through much of the display, and it closes on Mondays. The embankment itself is walkable at any hour. Both belong to the Japan Heritage story registered under the title of Hirogawa's disaster-prevention legacy. Yuasa, one station north, holds a nationally selected preservation district built on soy sauce brewing.
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Q&A
- Can I go inside the Ura Family Residence Front, Middle and Haze Storehouses?
- No. The Ura Family Residence is a private home and a working company office, and none of its four registered buildings admits visitors. The storehouse block can be glimpsed from the public lane outside the property, and that is the extent of public access.
- Why are the Ura Family Residence Front, Middle and Haze Storehouses counted as one building when there are three of them?
- The three units are joined under a continuous roof that turns a right angle, forming a single L-shaped structure of 117 square metres. The register therefore lists a quantity of one mune, the Japanese counter for buildings, while the name preserves the individual storehouse names used by the family.
- What does the name Hazegura tell us about the Ura Family Residence storehouses?
- Haze is the Japanese wax tree, whose berries yielded a vegetable wax produced widely in the old province of Kii. The name points toward that trade, but neither the Agency for Cultural Affairs record nor the prefectural description confirms what the storehouse held, so this remains an unproven reading.
- How does registration differ from Important Cultural Property status for a building like the Ura storehouses?
- Registration, created in 1996 for buildings around fifty years old or older, asks owners to notify the authorities before significant alteration and offers tax and repair support in return. Important Cultural Property designation applies stricter controls and higher levels of state involvement. Registration is designed for buildings that stay in everyday use, which is exactly the Ura situation.
- What else is worth seeing near the Ura Family Residence in Hirogawa?
- The Hiromura Embankment, a National Historic Site since 1938, runs a few minutes away, and the Inamura-no-Hi no Yakata museum on the 1854 tsunami stands close by at 671 Hiro. Both are open to visitors, unlike the Ura buildings. Yuasa, one stop north on the JR line, has a preservation district associated with soy sauce brewing.
Basic Information
| Name | Ura Family Residence Front, Middle and Haze Storehouses (浦家住宅前蔵・中蔵及び櫨蔵) |
|---|---|
| Location | 1310 Hiro, Hirogawa Town, Arida District, Wakayama Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Buildings), registration number 30-304, 98th registration round; criterion: contribution to the historic landscape of the nation |
| Year Designated | Registered 26 February 2021 (Reiwa 3) |
| Quantity | 1 mune (building) |
| Dimensions | Earthen-walled kura construction, two storeys with a single-storey section, tiled gable roofs, floor area 117 m² |
| Owner | Private (owner name not published in the national database) |
| Public Access | Not open. Private residence and company office; exterior partially visible from the public lane |
References
- National Database of Designated Cultural Properties, Agency for Cultural Affairs: Ura Family Residence Front, Middle and Haze Storehouses
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00013757
- Cultural Heritage Online: Ura Family Residence Front, Middle and Haze Storehouses
- https://online.bunka.go.jp/heritages/detail/594989
- Cultural Properties of Wakayama: Ura Family Residence
- https://wakayama-bunkazai.jp/bunkazai/bunkazai_823/
- Wakayama Prefectural Board of Education: Registered Tangible Cultural Properties
- https://www.pref.wakayama.lg.jp/prefg/500700/mokuroku/d00155458.html
Last verified: 2026.08.28