White Kura
Comments: 2
Kura are storehouses, usually 2-storey and made of stone. They can still be seen tucked away on the grounds of wealthier houses and estates that haven’t yet been broken up. I guess they became a fixture towards the end of the shogunate when a nouveau-riche merchant class arose and began to accrue stuff, but I might just be making that up.
I must have passed this one more times than I could count, but I only noticed it the day before yesterday … which is strange because it’s a pretty one, and somewhat unusual: the oni-gawara on top is bright red — something I’ve never seen before. I have no idea if this is a regional variation imported by the family from their hometown generations ago, or a damn-the-neighbours example of grandfather’s obstinate senility, but whatever its origin, it’s very fetching indeed.
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Posted to Photographs • 2003.11.23 (Sun) • 01:09
Comments
Posted by Kurt 2003.11.23, 22:32
jeremy- the pic is not quite big enough for me to make out the kanji on the side facing us (or my eyes are going to hell in a handbasket, which is probably more likely). I can make out the kihen (ki) radical on the left, but the rest is muddy, and nothing seemed to match up when I looked up kanji with that radical. I ask as I’d be curious to know whether that is perhaps the name of the original storehouse owner (likely), or something more intriguing, like an old form of advertisement :)
we have a few of these storehouses up our way in Saitama, mostly along the old Nakasendo highway, where they’re protected from the bulldozer, but no, none of them have such a bold oni-gawara as this one. Most of them do seem to sport a tiny door/window near where the kanji is on this one, kind of a thick beveled door (I’m sure there’s an architectural term for it) which when opened gives one a good idea of the thickness of these structures’ walls. Perhaps we’re looking at the above storehouse from the back?
Posted by Adam Rice 2003.11.25, 01:55
I am reminded of the town of Kurashiki, where all the homes are built like kura—after a catastrophic fire, the townsfolk decided to rebuild using a construction technique that would last.
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