Marugame Domain Official Rice Warehouse
- Period:
Prior to 1796 (Late Edo period)
- Former Location:
Torimachi, Marugame, Kagawa Prefecture
- Designation:
Kagawa Prefecture Registered Tangible Cultural Property
Portside grain storage to feed the people
This Marugame domain official rice warehouse was primarily used to store rice. It once faced a waterway connecting directly to Marugame Port for convenient rice loading and unloading. It has a kirizuma (*1) gabled roof tiled in the hongawara–buki (*2) style. The building was built over two layers of dressed stone, and was quite large for a rice warehouse. The front with its four entrances, with katabisashi rain eaves, and small latticed windows is particularly beautiful and impressive.
This warehouse also serves as the museum’s information center. The information center also has displays based on topics like: Why build the Shikoku Mura? or What is ichiku historic building relocation? There is also a guide video featuring actor Jun Kaname and a drone-filmed tour of the museum.
Walls
The walls are finished with shikkui stucco, and the mid-section is namako-kabe (*3) style.
Interior
The interior is divided into four rooms, and the walls between the pillars are of finely set logs arranged to avoid damage to the walls even when the rooms are packed with rice bales.
*1: Kirizuma-zukuri—A form of gabled roof. It features a roof with two sides sloping downward from the top ridge, creating a peaked shape like a book opened down.
*2: Hongawara–buki—A roof tiled with alternating rows of flat and round tiles.
*3: Namako–kabe—A wall finish that uses flat tiles arranged on the surface, while the spaces between are covered with fine shikkui stucco molded into semicircular cross section. The name comes from the rounded interstices resembling sea cucumbers, or namako in Japanese.