Sono Family Residence West Storehouse

What the Sono Family Residence West Storehouse Is

The Sono Family Residence West Storehouse (薗家住宅西土蔵, Sono-ke Jūtaku Nishi-dozō) is a two-storey late Edo-period Dozo-zukuri storehouse on the estate of the Sono family, former shipping merchants in Sono, Gobo City, Wakayama Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 15 August 2024. It was used to store zen, the individual lacquered serving trays used at formal meals.

It stands near the middle of the north side of the plot, facing south. The roof is a Kirizuma-zukuri gable with the entrance on the long side, Hirairi, in Hongawarabuki tiling, and the building area is 34 square metres. The annex stands against it on the west and the east storehouse on the east, and the three together form the north side of the estate.

At weddings, memorial services and other gatherings, each guest was served on his or her own tray, so a household had to own them by the dozen and needed somewhere to put them away between occasions. That a merchant family used to receiving guests kept a whole storehouse for trays says a good deal about life on the estate.

Why It Was Registered

The criterion is contribution to the historic landscape. The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes a closed storehouse with small windows that, together with the east storehouse, gives the north side of the plot the weighty look of a substantial estate. The Sono Family Residence West Storehouse is valued less as a building on its own than as half of that northern wall.

The walls are finished in white Shikkui lime plaster with vertical boarding around the base, the same treatment as the late Edo doll storehouse. The shared finish ties together the two storehouses toward the west of the estate.

Inside, both floors are boarded; the ground floor is divided into east and west rooms, the upper floor left as one. At 34 square metres it is a size up from the doll storehouse, which covers 27 square metres, and about half the east storehouse at 62 square metres, which suggests each store was sized to what it had to hold.

What to Look For

Look at the West Storehouse alongside its eastern neighbour. Both have gabled hongawarabuki roofs and both face south under a continuous line of eaves. But the east storehouse carries a tiled lean-to across its front and is plastered right up to the eaves, while the west storehouse has timber boarding at the base. Two storehouses of the same period were finished with different degrees of care.

The junction with the annex to the west is worth a look too. The annex of around 1953 has board walls and a pantiled roof, materials nothing like those of the Edo stores. Reading the north row from the west, the buildings run Shōwa, Edo, Edo, and the Sono Family Residence West Storehouse stands at the join.

Visiting

The West Storehouse is part of a private home, and neither the building nor the grounds are open (checked 24 September 2026). Its south front faces the inner yard behind the main house on Shinmachi-dori, so it cannot be seen head-on from a public road.

Please do not peer into the property or point a camera over the walls.

Directions to the estate and general visiting conditions are on the Sono Family Residence page.