Hagihara Family Residence West Storehouse

What Is the Hagihara Family Residence West Storehouse?

The Hagihara Family Residence West Storehouse (萩原家住宅西蔵) is a storehouse parlor built in 1880 in the old post town of Katsunuma-juku, Koshu City, Yamanashi Prefecture, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2018.

Read Hagihara-ke jūtaku nishi-no-kura, it stands at the very back of the western lot of the Hagihara Family Residence, at the southern edge of the property. It is the last building in the line that runs from the West Shop on the street through the West Zashiki.

An Ink Inscription Dated 1880

Of the five Hagihara buildings, the West Storehouse is the only one with a precise construction date. According to Koshu City, an ink inscription on the building dates it to 1880, and the Agency for Cultural Affairs records the same year.

It was built with hand-forged Japanese nails, and this difference from the Western nails of the East Storehouse is why the East Storehouse is judged the later of the two. The year 1880 is one year before Hagihara Gensuke bought the eastern lot in 1881, so the West Storehouse went up while the western lot still belonged to another household.

A Fourteen-Mat Parlor and a Rare-Wood Post

The Hagihara Family Residence West Storehouse is a 2-story Dozo-zukuri building with a tiled gabled roof running north to south. At 48 m² of building area it is the smallest of the Hagihara buildings. Doorways open on the east and north sides, and a lean-to Geya roof wraps around it.

The ground floor is a single room of fourteen tatami mats with formal Zashiki-kazari fittings. The Tokobashira, the post of the decorative alcove, is made of an unusual wood, and the Agency describes the whole interior as a storehouse parlor full of carefully chosen details. A toilet is built into the north end of the east lean-to.

On the south side, a window with Kannon-biraki double doors opens onto the garden. Where the East Storehouse turns its windows to the street, the West Storehouse looks inward to the garden at the back of the property, a parlor kept well away from public view.

Why It Was Registered

The Hagihara Family Residence West Storehouse was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Building) in 2018 under the criterion of contributing to the historic landscape of the nation. Its value rests on its firm date, its early Meiji construction with Japanese nails, and the care lavished on a small parlor, down to the choice of wood for the alcove post.

Koshu City explains that a typical Katsunuma-juku merchant house placed storehouses and storehouse parlors behind the main building, with small courtyard gardens between them. The West Storehouse preserves that rear part of the merchant compound well.

Visiting the West Storehouse

The Hagihara Family Residence West Storehouse stands at the innermost part of a private property and is not open to the public. From the old Koshu Kaido it is hidden behind the West Shop and the West Zashiki. The grounds cannot be entered or photographed.

At events hosted by the owners, such as a tea gathering on October 5, 2019, guests were shown a storehouse parlor of the Hagihara Family Residence, although the announcement does not say which one. Koshu City's cultural property notices report such occasions.