On the Echigo Plain, the gangi arcades, a type of arcade constructed from the timber eaves of adjacent buildings, were built in many market towns through the Edo Period. These arcades were traditional in towns with heavy snowfalls. Over the years there have been many studies done on gangi arcades, but very few discuss their history. The purpose of this paper is to improve the understanding of gangi arcades between the 18th and 19th centuries. This is a case study of Sanjo Town, Echigo Province.

Sanjo Town was developed as the castle town of the Sanjo Domain in the late 1610s. After the abolition of the Sanjo Domain in 1623, Sanjo Town continued to flourish as a market town and a river port town. The main street of Sanjo Town, called Honcho Street, was built along the Ikarashi River. The gangi arcades were built on both sides of Honcho Street, Honji Street, and Hachiman Street by the mid 18th century. People used these arcades as covered walkways. In the mid 18th century, Ichinokido Village and Tajima Village, the villages adjacent to Sanjo Town, started to build some stores with gangi arcades. However Sanjo Town’s people called for a ban on these new buildings, and the people of these villages gave up building gangi arcades.

Gangi arcades were also used in a commercial fashion. For example, a merchant who set up the stalls of a periodic market using the gangi arcade style on Honji Street was described in the record of Sanjo earthquake in 1828. In the late 19th century, people set up mago-bisashi, boards attached in front of gangi arcades in the winter to secure the places for the stalls of the periodic market. These attachment boards were set up along streets with gangi arcades, and they were concentrated around both ends of Sanjo Town.

In Sanjo Town, stores with gangi arcades were constructed until the late 19th century but use of the gangi arcade style was discontinued by the 1930s.