Sankyo Rice Storehouses

The Sankyo Rice Storehouses in Sakata are a row of twelve black-tiled, white-walled warehouses built in 1893 to store rice for the Shonai domain, several of which remain in commercial use today alongside two converted into public exhibition spaces. The site is best known for the double row of roughly 40 tall zelkova trees planted along the northern wall of the warehouses to shield the stored rice from summer heat and winter winds -- a functional windbreak that has become the complex's visual signature. Visitors can walk the full length of the grounds, view the warehouse exteriors and tree-lined path, and enter the Shonai Rice History Museum, which explains the region's rice-farming history and the storehouses' role in the historic shipping trade with Osaka, and the Sakata Yume no Kura hall, which houses local craft and souvenir shops. A relaxed visit covering both museum exhibits and the outdoor grounds takes about an hour to 90 minutes. Late afternoon light filtering through the zelkova canopy along the warehouse wall is considered the most photogenic time, and the site is especially striking in autumn when the trees turn yellow, or in winter when snow settles on the tiled roofs.