Ichijima Gun and Gunpowder Shop

Yamagata's First Concrete Shop

The Ichijima Gun and Gunpowder Shop (市島銃砲火薬店店舗) is a two-storey reinforced-concrete shop built in 1927 facing the street at Nanokamachi, Yamagata City, Yamagata Prefecture, and was registered with the storehouse behind it as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) on November 20, 2001. It belongs to a merchant family that has dealt in gunpowder since the Edo period (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency for Cultural Affairs records it as two storeys of reinforced concrete with a galvanised copper roof and a building area of 45 square metres; registration number 06-0040. Yamagata Prefecture lists the owner as a private individual.

A Gunpowder Merchant's Shop

According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs, the ground floor is the shop and the upper floor a tatami room. Behind it stands the family's two-storey earthen storehouse of 1910 (Agency for Cultural Affairs, Yamagata Prefecture).

Yamagata Prefecture describes it as the first two-storey reinforced-concrete shop in Yamagata, small but solid in form.

Why It Was Registered

The Ichijima Gun and Gunpowder Shop was registered as a building that has become a model of design. The Agency for Cultural Affairs notes that it was Yamagata's first reinforced-concrete shop building, small yet weighty in form.

What to Look For

The walls of the Ichijima Gun and Gunpowder Shop are finished in washed mortar with joint lines, pilasters and capitals, imitating stone (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

Though the building covers only 45 square metres, its stone-like front gives it a heavy presence on the Nanokamachi street (Agency for Cultural Affairs, Yamagata Prefecture).

Visiting

According to Yamagata Prefecture, the Ichijima Gun and Gunpowder Shop is not open to the public. It is at 5-10-53 Nanokamachi, Yamagata City, and the exterior can be seen from the street. See the group page Ichijima Gun Shop and Residence for both registered structures.