旧下ヨイチ運上家, Trading post in Yoichi, Japan
The Kyu-Shimo-Yoichi Unjo-ya is a trading house with a gabled roof secured by stone weights, latticed windows, and paper sliding doors extending about 40 meters. The structure combines traditional Japanese timber framing with interior spaces that served both official and working functions.
The house was built in 1853 by merchant Hayashi Chozaemon and served as a trading place between Japanese officials and the Ainu people during the Edo period. It remains the last surviving trading post of this kind from that era.
The interior shows how people once lived by rank: raised tatami rooms for officials on one side, wooden floors for workers on the other. This layout reveals who held what position in the daily order.
Visitors can view the house from outside and photograph its traditional architecture from different angles. The location is easy to reach on foot and sits in Yoichi, where other historical sites are nearby.
The building contains about 213 cubic meters of original timber, showing how substantially these trading houses were constructed. Such large wooden frames were needed to support the heavy storage and the many people who worked there.
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