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The Sankyo Rice Storehouses were built in 1896 by Sakai, the former lord of the Shonai Domain, to store rice for the Sakata Rice Exchange. In 1939, the rice exchange was shut down when the government took control and prohibited rice trade. Today, they are used as storehouses for the Shonai Farmers Cooperative. Originally, there were fifteen storehouses, but four were torn down because the road was widened. Of the remaining eleven, nine are used to store rice and two house a rice museum, a souvenir shop, and a restaurant.
The row of zelkova trees standing along the storehouses are well known and often used in TV commercials or movies. Though these storehouses were built more than a hundred years ago, despite their age they are still highly functional. The zelkova leaves block out sunshine from the west in the summer and prevent the temperature from rising in the storehouses. The double-layered walls on the west and the two-tiered roof also help keep the temperature from rising by allowing air to circulate between the wall and roof layers.
In the old days, there were two ways to protect the storehouses from rats. The first was to surround the storehouses with long, narrow channels of water to prevent the rats from entering. The second was to capture a lot of small river crabs and release them into the Niida River running beside the storehouses. At night, those crabs would leave the river and scare away the rats.
The Sankyo Rice Storehouses were established on Sankyo Island, which stood between the Mogami River and Niida River. Sakata is well known for strong winds that blow throughout the year, and big fires often broke out in the city. When the storehouses were built, the Honma Family builder came up with an idea to protect them from fires. First, piles of 3.6-meter logs were buried around the island. Second, rocks were placed around the logs. Also, the dirt floors inside the warehouses were mixed with magnesium chloride to a depth of 60 centimeters and covered with 3 centimeters of salt to eliminate moisture. The inside of the storehouses feel cool because of the salt and magnesium chloride.
This is a dock where boats used long ago to transport rice were tethered. Small boats of this kind, called kokai-bune, brought rice produced in the Shonai region and inland Yamagata to these storehouses using the Niida River and Mogami River.
Since this location was used as a site for the TV drama entitled “Oshin,” many tourists have visited due to the popularity of the drama in Asia and the Middle East. Oshin is the name of the main character, a girl born in a poor farmer’s home who was sold into servitude in Sakata when she was still small. The story follows her trials and tribulations through the Meiji, Taisho, and Showa periods, and although she faced many difficulties, she was able to succeed in life. In 2013, the drama was made into a new movie.
(Koichi Ito et al., VIPS)
The photos on this page are courtesy of the Shonai Visitors Association, Sakata City, and VIPS.
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