Tanaka Family Residence Tool Storehouse

The One Building with a Firm Date

The Tanaka Family Residence Tool Storehouse (田中家住宅道具蔵, Tanaka-ke Jūtaku Dōgugura) is an earthen storehouse built in 1876 in Jinba, Yamagata City, Yamagata Prefecture, and was listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2008.

It stands southeast of the main house, right beside a channel that runs along the road. Unlike the parlor and pickle storehouses, which are joined to the house, this one sits on its own near the street. As its name suggests, it would have held farm tools and household equipment.

The building measures 5.6 metres by 3.7 metres, with a building area of 21 square metres, and is a single storey in dozo-zukuri earthen-wall construction. It is the only one of the five registered structures with a precise year on record, which makes it the anchor for dating the whole compound.

Why It Was Registered

The Tanaka Family Residence Tool Storehouse received registration number 06-0109 in the 61st round of national registrations, dated 2008/10/23, for contributing to the historic landscape.

A white-walled storehouse beside a roadside channel is part of what gives a rural street its character. The Agency for Cultural Affairs adds that the tool storehouse shares its roof framing with the parlor storehouse. With one building firmly dated to 1876 and the other recorded only as early Meiji, that shared structure suggests the family's storehouses went up at much the same time. The building matters both as a piece of the streetscape and as a fixed point for reading the history of the house.

What to Look For

Stepped white plaster

The walls are finished in white shikkui plaster worked into stepped bands, with shitami-itabari clapboard around the base to keep off the splashback. The horizontal lines of the steps against the white wall, and the contrast with the dark boards below, are the details to look for.

A floating roof and a sheltered door

The gabled roof is clad in iron sheet and built as an okiyane, set over the earthen body of the storehouse rather than resting directly on it. The door is at the centre of the west wall under a small eave, and there is a window on the north side.

The same frame as the parlor storehouse

The Agency's notes say the roof frame matches that of the parlor storehouse, which is described as a distinctive framework of straight timbers. Two storehouses of different size and purpose, in other words, hold up their roofs the same way.

Visiting

The storehouse is part of a private home and is not open to visitors; as of October 2026 we found no announcement of open days. Because it stands beside the roadside channel, its exterior may be visible from the street, but please stay off the property and respect the residents' privacy.

The photographs in the Agency for Cultural Affairs database are the most reliable way to see the Tanaka Family Residence Tool Storehouse.