Yamamoto Katsunosuke Shoten Shop Storehouse No. 3

Yamamoto Katsunosuke Shoten Shop Storehouse No. 3

Yamamoto Katsunosuke Shoten Shop Storehouse No. 3 (山本勝之助商店店蔵三, Misegura San) is a two-storey earthen-walled storehouse built in the middle 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 faces the black office of the firm across the road and lays its long white flank along the street. Of the storehouses belonging to Yamamoto Katsunosuke Shoten, a palm-fibre and Japanese pepper wholesaler founded in 1880, Yamamoto Katsunosuke Shoten Shop Storehouse No. 3 is the only one whose ridge runs parallel to the road.

How it is built

According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs database, Shop Storehouse No. 3 is 8 Ken long and 3 ken wide, with a building area of 119 square metres. It is built in the Dozo-zukuri manner under a gabled roof (Kirizuma-zukuri) of pantiles (Sangawara-buki). Storehouses No. 1 and No. 2 both run north to south and show their gables to the road; No. 3 runs east to west and shows its long side instead.

On the north side, facing the road, an open-sided tiled lean-to shelters three separate doorways. The ground floor is boarded, and the roof sits on a conventional Wagoya frame of short struts.

The walls are white lime plaster (Shikkui). At the top of each gable wall the plasterer built out a hachimaki, a thickened band that wraps the head of the wall, and the eaves are plastered over so that each Taruki rafter keeps its shape under the lime. Storehouse eaves were sealed in plaster against fire; here the job was done with some care for the play of light and shadow.

Why it was registered

Yamamoto Katsunosuke Shoten Shop Storehouse No. 3 was registered as number 30-0122 under the criterion of contributing to the historic landscape of the nation, on the same day as the office, Storehouses No. 1 and No. 2, and the main house, inner storehouses, gate and stone wall of the Yamamoto Family Residence.

Part of its value is orientation. With a long, three-doored storehouse facing the office across the road, this stretch of Route 370 reads, on both sides, as the working yard of a wholesaler. Three doors suggest several loads being handled at once, though we found no record of what each door served.

The rest is plasterwork. The hachimaki band and the rafter-shaped eaves answer the practical need for fire protection while giving the white walls some texture, and among the firm's storehouses the agency notes them only at No. 3.

What to look for

The long side on the road

Stand on the north side of the road in front of the office and Yamamoto Katsunosuke Shoten Shop Storehouse No. 3 fills the view: 8 ken of wall, the open lean-to along the north side and the three doorways beneath it.

The plaster band and rafter eaves

Step round to either gable to see the hachimaki thickening the top of the wall. Then look up under the eaves, where each rafter is wrapped in lime, a row of rounded ribs that shows how a timber roof edge was sealed on an earthen storehouse.

Beside No. 2

On the south side of the road, the gable of No. 2 sits to the west and the long flank of No. 3 to the east. The pair shows how much a single choice, gable or long side to the street, changes the look of a road.

Visiting

Yamamoto Katsunosuke Shoten Shop Storehouse No. 3 belongs to a working company and is not open inside; you view it from National Route 370. 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.