Odagaki Shoten
Hyogo
2021
2021
Buildings that go back in time
The complex of buildings that make up Odagaki Shoten, a black bean wholesaler founded in 1734, is located near the Kawaramachi Tsumairi merchant housing district in the eastern part of Tamba Sasayama, the old castle-town district around Sasayama Castle. Composed of ten structures of different sizes dating from the second half of the Edo period (1601–1867) to the early Taisho period (1912–1926), the whole complex was listed as a registered tangible cultural property in 2007.
We renovated five of the buildings, of which the oldest was from the latter part of the Edo period. In our minds, we transported ourselves back to the Taisho period, when the last of these magnificent and graceful merchant’s houses were built. While learning all we could about their roof trusses and very specific building techniques, we also equipped them with the necessary modern level of earthquake resistance. Then, because we saw the buildings themselves as an important cultural resource, we stripped away numerous accretions—things that had been added for modernization purposes, utilitarian odds and ends—before deliberately seeking to wind back the clock, both in terms of how we configured and finished the spaces, in order to create buildings that squarely confront and return to their own past.
For the floors, we used machiya paving stones from old town houses (machiya) in Kyoto, where a slightly rusty granite from the vicinity of the Inland Sea was favored. Now, with plots of land being subdivided as they pass from one generation to the next, as well as condominiums replacing individual houses, newer and fancier kinds of stone are preferred. As a result, machiya paving stones from demolished houses are treated like scrap and lie, neglected and abandoned, in what I like to call a “vast and magnificent stone cemetery.” When we reused them to cover the packed-earth floors of the big merchant’s house, we deliberately placed paving stones from different quarries and eras next to one another to get a mixture of colors that gave the floor a wonderfully gentle feel. We placed tea-canister-shaped stone basins (originally garden ornaments) in the area where the products are displayed, and the black beans weighed and sold. While reconfiguring the space to fulfill all its desired functions, we were in continuous dialogue with the accumulated years of the past so that we could identify the right materials and, as far as possible, select ones that would actually have been strong enough to last so long a time.
Phase I of the project is now complete. Over the course of the plan, which has four phases in total, we will renovate all the buildings in the complex. Phase I is an important first step. Learning from the stylistic context as we go about our work, we have both preserved and utilized the buildings’ value as registered tangible culture properties while contributing to the region by creating something for future generations to enjoy.
Tomoyuki Sakakida
The complex of buildings that make up Odagaki Shoten, a black bean wholesaler founded in 1734, is located near the Kawaramachi Tsumairi merchant housing district in the eastern part of Tamba Sasayama, the old castle-town district around Sasayama Castle. Composed of ten structures of different sizes dating from the second half of the Edo period (1601–1867) to the early Taisho period (1912–1926), the whole complex was listed as a registered tangible cultural property in 2007.
We renovated five of the buildings, of which the oldest was from the latter part of the Edo period. In our minds, we transported ourselves back to the Taisho period, when the last of these magnificent and graceful merchant’s houses were built. While learning all we could about their roof trusses and very specific building techniques, we also equipped them with the necessary modern level of earthquake resistance. Then, because we saw the buildings themselves as an important cultural resource, we stripped away numerous accretions—things that had been added for modernization purposes, utilitarian odds and ends—before deliberately seeking to wind back the clock, both in terms of how we configured and finished the spaces, in order to create buildings that squarely confront and return to their own past.
For the floors, we used machiya paving stones from old town houses (machiya) in Kyoto, where a slightly rusty granite from the vicinity of the Inland Sea was favored. Now, with plots of land being subdivided as they pass from one generation to the next, as well as condominiums replacing individual houses, newer and fancier kinds of stone are preferred. As a result, machiya paving stones from demolished houses are treated like scrap and lie, neglected and abandoned, in what I like to call a “vast and magnificent stone cemetery.” When we reused them to cover the packed-earth floors of the big merchant’s house, we deliberately placed paving stones from different quarries and eras next to one another to get a mixture of colors that gave the floor a wonderfully gentle feel. We placed tea-canister-shaped stone basins (originally garden ornaments) in the area where the products are displayed, and the black beans weighed and sold. While reconfiguring the space to fulfill all its desired functions, we were in continuous dialogue with the accumulated years of the past so that we could identify the right materials and, as far as possible, select ones that would actually have been strong enough to last so long a time.
Phase I of the project is now complete. Over the course of the plan, which has four phases in total, we will renovate all the buildings in the complex. Phase I is an important first step. Learning from the stylistic context as we go about our work, we have both preserved and utilized the buildings’ value as registered tangible culture properties while contributing to the region by creating something for future generations to enjoy.
Tomoyuki Sakakida
