Muramatsu Family Residence Merchant Storehouse

A Shop Storehouse on the Old Road

The Muramatsu Family Residence Merchant Storehouse (村松家住宅商家蔵) is a shop storehouse of 1873 in Momozono, Minami Alps City, Yamanashi Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) on January 31, 2003 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency records a 2-storey earthen-walled storehouse with a tiled roof and a building area of 83 square metres; registration number 19-0042.

Storehouse, Shop and Living Room in One

The Muramatsu Family Residence Merchant Storehouse faces east onto the Sunshin Okan, the old road through Momozono (Agency for Cultural Affairs). It measures 8 ken by 2 and a half ken (1 ken is about 1.8 metres), with a lean-to eave 5 shaku (about 1.5 metres) deep along the east front facing the road.

Inside, the north half is a storehouse for goods; the south half holds the shop on the ground floor and a living room above it (Agency for Cultural Affairs). A pair of hinged doors near the south end of the west wall leads into the earth-floored work area of the main house. The building is recorded as the shop storehouse put up when the Muramatsu family opened a money-lending business, and its ridge tag names the master carpenter Hatano Sōbei (幡野宗兵衛).

Why It Was Registered

The Agency registered the Muramatsu Family Residence Merchant Storehouse for its contribution to the historic landscape. While the main house stays back from the road, this shop storehouse turns its front to the road and forms the public face of the estate.

What to Look For

On the Muramatsu Family Residence Merchant Storehouse, look at the lean-to eave over the road side and at how one building is split between storage, shop and living space. The hinged doors into the main house show how the shop and the home were used as one (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency also notes that the arched framing of the main house's upper windows may date from when the main house was moved on rollers to accompany the building of this storehouse, so the Muramatsu Family Residence Merchant Storehouse reshaped the layout of the whole estate.

Visiting

The Muramatsu Family Residence Merchant Storehouse is privately owned, and no official information on interior access was found (checked October 2026). Because it faces the road, its exterior can be seen from the street; please do not enter the grounds.