Kurayoshi Shirakabe Dozogun (White-Walled Storehouse District)

The Kurayoshi Shirakabe Dozogun, or white-walled storehouse district, developed along the Tama River canal in Kurayoshi during the late Edo and Meiji periods as the town grew into a regional commercial hub for cotton, indigo, and other trade goods moved along the waterway. Merchants built rows of storehouses (dozo) with thick plastered white walls and roofs covered in distinctive reddish-brown Sekishu tiles imported from neighboring Shimane, a construction style chosen for its fire resistance in a densely built commercial district. The surviving streetscape preserves several dozen Edo- and Meiji-era storehouses and merchant residences along both banks of the canal, connected by small stone bridges, representing one of the more complete preserved merchant townscapes in the San'in region. Many of the original storehouses have been adapted for reuse as cafes, craft shops, and small museums while retaining their exterior white-plaster walls and tile roofs under local preservation guidelines, allowing the district to remain a living commercial street rather than a static open-air museum. The Tourist Information Center at the district's entrance provides historical context on the canal trade that built the district's wealth, tracing its growth from a Sengoku-era castle town market into its peak as a Meiji-period commercial center before rail transport shifted trade routes away from the canal.