Yamamoto Katsunosuke Shoten Shop Storehouse No. 2

Yamamoto Katsunosuke Shoten Shop Storehouse No. 2

Yamamoto Katsunosuke Shoten Shop Storehouse No. 2 (山本勝之助商店店蔵二, Misegura Ni) is a two-storey earthen-walled storehouse built in the early part of the Taisho era (1912 to 1926) on the south side of National Route 370 in Sakai, Kainan City, Wakayama Prefecture, and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on October 2, 2007.

It is a compact white building facing Shop Storehouse No. 1 across the road, and the trade mark on its gable is singled out in the Agency for Cultural Affairs description as the detail that lifts the whole facade.

The owner was Yamamoto Katsunosuke Shoten, a wholesaler of palm fibre and Japanese pepper founded in 1880. Of the firm's office and three shop storehouses, the agency dates only No. 2 to the early Taisho years; the others are placed in the middle of the era. That makes Yamamoto Katsunosuke Shoten Shop Storehouse No. 2 the first of the group to go up, built across the road just as the palm-fibre trade was taking off.

How it is built

The agency's database gives Shop Storehouse No. 2 a length of 5 ken and a width of 2 and a half ken (the Ken is the standard bay of Japanese carpentry), with a building area of 61 square metres, the smallest of the three shop storehouses. It is built in the Dozo-zukuri manner and runs north to south under a gabled roof (Kirizuma-zukuri) of pantiles (Sangawara-buki), with a tiled lean-to on the east side sheltering the kuramae, the covered work area in front of the door.

The walls are white lime plaster (Shikkui) above a base of vertical boards, and the ground floor is boarded rather than bare earth. The roof is carried on a conventional Wagoya frame of short struts, and the roof boarding sits on a lattice of split bamboo. Nothing here is showy; it is plain, careful carpentry with ordinary materials.

Storehouse No. 1 across the road, dated slightly later, uses rising beams and an iron-clad base. Two buildings of nearly the same age, a few metres apart, made in noticeably different ways.

Why it was registered

Yamamoto Katsunosuke Shoten Shop Storehouse No. 2 was registered as number 30-0121 under the criterion of contributing to the historic landscape of the nation. It was registered on the same day as the office, Storehouses No. 1 and No. 3, and the main house, inner storehouses, gate and stone wall of the Yamamoto Family Residence, so that a merchant compound spread across both sides of the road was recognised as a whole.

The office and the main house stand on the north side of Route 370; No. 2 and No. 3 stand on the south. Because of them the Yamamoto buildings do not simply line one side of the street but frame it from both. Even the lot numbers split along the road: 679 for the office on the north side, 479-1 for the two storehouses on the south.

Small as it is, No. 2 carried the firm's mark on its gable for anyone travelling the road. According to the company, the Kaneichi mark combines a carpenter's square, standing for straight dealing, with the character for one, standing for honesty as the first rule of trade.

What to look for

The trade mark on the gable

Start with the mark on the gable of Yamamoto Katsunosuke Shoten Shop Storehouse No. 2. On an otherwise all-white wall it is the single accent, and from a distance it identifies the building as Kaneichi property.

Boarded base

The lower walls are clad in vertical boards, where No. 1 across the road uses iron plate. Standing in the road you can compare the two finishes side by side, something only this facing pair allows.

The work area on the east

The tiled lean-to on the east side creates a sheltered work area outside the door. No. 1 across the road also has its work area on the east, while No. 3 puts an open-sided lean-to along its north side, facing the road.

Visiting

Yamamoto Katsunosuke Shoten Shop Storehouse No. 2 belongs to a working company and is not open inside; you view it from National Route 370. Because it stands on the south side, the gable mark is best seen from the north side of the road, near Storehouse No. 1. The road is narrow, so keep to the edge and watch for traffic. We found no stated restriction on photographing the exterior from the road, but please stay off the property.

By public transport, take the Orange Bus bound for Tozanguchi from stop 6 at JR Kainan Station and ride about 10 minutes to Kameike Koen; the stop is in front of the shop. By car, leave the Hanwa Expressway at Kainan-Higashi Interchange and drive east on Route 370 for about 3 kilometres, roughly 5 minutes. The official website does not mention visitor parking.