A Late Edo Storehouse at the Back of the Plot
The Storehouse of the Maeda Family Residence (前田家住宅土蔵, Maeda-ke Jūtaku Dozō, also written Maedake Jutaku Dozo) is a two storey earthen-walled kura in Nakura, Kōyaguchi-chō, Hashimoto City, Wakayama Prefecture, built in the closing decades of the Edo period between about 1830 and 1867 and added to Japan's national Register of Tangible Cultural Properties on 23 July 2004.
It occupies the southern edge of the property, the far end from the old Yamato Kaidō, and faces north back toward the house it served. Seven bays along the ridge, three bays deep, gabled, with a building area of 79 square metres.
The roof is the detail to catch. Where the main house and both shoin buildings carry sangawara pantiles, the storehouse is roofed in hongawara, the older system of alternating broad flat tiles and semicylindrical cover tiles. Hongawara is heavier, needs a stronger frame beneath it, and costs considerably more. Putting it on a storehouse rather than on the family's own reception rooms says something about where a merchant household located its sense of security.
Along the north face a dobisashi projects half a bay, a canopy plastered over in the same earth as the walls so that no timber is exposed to a spark. Two doorways open beneath it. Storehouses of this scale often have one; two implies that the contents were sorted before they went in.
They were. The interior divides into two compartments. The eastern three bays formed a jūki-gura for household utensils and tableware. The western four bays held rice on the ground floor and clothing on the floor above. Three categories of property, three separate spaces, one building.
That division is not decorative. Rice needs ventilation and protection from damp; textiles need protection from insects and light; lacquer and ceramics need to be kept from knocking together and from swings in humidity. The thick earthen walls of a dozō, sometimes thirty centimetres or more, buffer temperature and moisture and buy hours against a fire outside. Sorting the contents by what each needs is the practical logic of the plan.
Registered for the Landscape, Not the Design
Japan's registration system, introduced in 1996, offers three criteria under which a building may be entered. The Maeda main house and New Shoin were both registered under the first, that a building serves as a standard of design. The storehouse was not.
It came in under a different criterion: that a building contributes to the historic landscape of the country. Register number 30-0061, forty-third round, registration date 23 July 2004, public notice 17 August.
The distinction is worth understanding rather than skipping. A design criterion asks what the building is in itself, how well it embodies a type or a level of craft. A landscape criterion asks what the building does to its surroundings, whether the street or the town or the valley would read differently without it. The storehouse was judged on the second question. Its white walls and heavy tiled roof closing the southern end of the plot are part of what makes this stretch of Kōyaguchi look the way it does.
Dating carries a small open question. The Agency for Cultural Affairs places the building in the late Edo period and brackets it between 1830 and 1867. Wakayama Prefecture's cultural property listing gives a slightly wider range, from the end of the Edo period into early Meiji. The Agency's register is the primary record, and its bracket is the one used here.
Three companion buildings were registered on the same day: the main house of the late Edo period (30-0058), the Naka-shoin of the middle Meiji period (30-0059) and the New Shoin of 1916 (30-0060). Between them the four cover roughly a century and a half of one merchant family's building.
Visiting, and a Note About the Gallery
The site is about five minutes on foot from Kōyaguchi Station on the JR Wakayama Line, at Nakura 392-1, Kōyaguchi-chō, Hashimoto City. Hashimoto City's tourism office gives the address in the shorter form as Nakura 392.
The description filed with the storehouse's registration notes that part of the building was in use as a gallery. Hashimoto City's tourism page tells a different story now. Updated in October 2024, it states that only the exterior can be viewed, and Wakayama Prefecture's tourism site carries the same advice. The property is privately owned and no opening hours or admission fee are published. Anyone travelling specifically to see inside should contact the Hashimoto City tourism desk first.
The city's page does mention what the house holds: pieces spanning the Edo, Meiji, Taishō and Shōwa periods, among them a Chinese-style poem in what is thought to be the hand of General Nogi Maresuke. The attribution is given as a supposition rather than a fact, and no public viewing of the collection is currently advertised.
What remains available is the walk. From the road the plastered street front of the main house is the dominant sight; the storehouse stands at the far southern end of the plot and is visible only in part. Photography from the public road is unrestricted, but this is a working residence and the courtesy of keeping a lens out of the garden applies.
Pair the visit with the station area. The former Katsuragikan, a three storey timber inn of the late Meiji period registered in 2001, faces Kōyaguchi Station, and the station building dates from 1912. Kōyaguchi took its name and its trade from the pilgrim route up to Kōyasan after the railway reached Nakura in 1901, and the Maeda storehouse, already several decades old by then, was built for an economy that ran on the road instead.
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Q&A
- Can the inside of the Maeda Family Residence Storehouse be seen, and is there still a gallery?
- The description filed with the 2004 registration records that part of the storehouse was then in use as a gallery, but that is no longer the current position. Hashimoto City's tourism page, updated in October 2024, states that only the exterior of the Maeda property can be viewed, and Wakayama Prefecture's tourism site agrees. The property is privately owned, with no published opening hours or admission fee. Contact the Hashimoto City tourism desk before travelling if seeing the interior matters to you.
- What was stored in the Maeda Family Residence Storehouse?
- Three categories, kept apart. The eastern three bays served as a jūki-gura for household utensils and tableware. The western four bays held rice on the ground floor and clothing on the upper floor. The separation is practical: rice needs ventilation, textiles need protection from insects and light, and lacquer and ceramics need stable humidity. Two doorways on the north face allowed the compartments to be reached independently.
- Why is the Maeda Family Residence Storehouse roofed differently from the rest of the property?
- The storehouse carries hongawara tiling, the older system of broad flat tiles alternating with semicylindrical cover tiles, while the main house and both shoin buildings use lighter sangawara pantiles. Hongawara is heavier, requires a stronger frame and costs more. On a storehouse it reflects the value the household placed on protecting its stored property, and it contributes to the building's weight and presence at the southern end of the plot.
- Under what criterion was the Maeda Family Residence Storehouse registered?
- It was registered under the criterion that a building contributes to the historic landscape of the country, which differs from the main house and New Shoin: both of those were registered as serving as a standard of design. Registration took effect on 23 July 2004, with public notice on 17 August, under register number 30-0061. The distinction reflects a judgement about the building's effect on its surroundings rather than about its design in isolation.
- How old is the Maeda Family Residence Storehouse, and do the sources agree?
- The Agency for Cultural Affairs register assigns it to the late Edo period and brackets construction between 1830 and 1867. Wakayama Prefecture's cultural property listing gives a wider span, from the end of the Edo period into the early Meiji years. The Agency's database is the primary record and its bracket is generally cited. Either way the storehouse is the second oldest of the four registered Maeda buildings, after the main house.
Basic Information
| Name | Maeda Family Residence Storehouse (前田家住宅土蔵) |
|---|---|
| Location | Nakura 392-1, Kōyaguchi-chō, Hashimoto City, Wakayama Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure), register number 30-0061; criterion: contributes to the historic landscape of the country |
| Year Designated | Registered 23 July 2004 (public notice 17 August 2004) |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Seven bays along the ridge by three bays deep; building area 79 m²; two storey earthen-walled construction, gabled, hongawara tiled roof, with a half-bay dobisashi and two doorways on the north face |
| Owner | Private individual |
| Public Access | Exterior viewing only; the gallery use recorded at the time of registration is not currently advertised |
References
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, National Cultural Properties Database — Maeda-ke Jūtaku Dozō
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00004290
- Wakayama Prefecture Cultural Properties — Maeda-ke Jūtaku
- https://wakayama-bunkazai.jp/bunkazai/bunkazai-spot-415/
- Hashimoto City Tourism — Maeda Residence
- https://www.city.hashimoto.lg.jp/hashimototaikan/asobu/midokoro/1464569395149.html
- Hashimoto City Board of Education — Registered Cultural Properties
- https://www.city.hashimoto.lg.jp/guide/kyoikuiinkai/syougaku/bunka/bunnkazai/kuni_tourokubunkazai/1359687176563.html
Last verified: 2026.08.27