Akita City Araya Library Warehouse Building

Akita City Araya Library Warehouse Building: The Southern End, Now a Library

The Akita City Araya Library Warehouse Building (秋田市立新屋図書館倉庫棟) is a single-storey timber warehouse built in 1934 in Araya Okawacho, Akita City, Akita Prefecture, and entered on the national register as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2000.

It is the southernmost of the eight buildings of the Former Araya National Warehouses: timber, single storey, with a sheet-metal roof and a building area of 660 square metres. The name is the one it bore when registered; at the time of registration it was used as a store for the city library. It is still part of the Araya Library today.

Why It Was Registered

The Akita City Araya Library Warehouse Building is registration number 05-0064, listed under the criterion of contributing to the historic landscape of the country, and was registered with the other seven buildings on 26 September 2000.

The Agency's record for this building places it at the southern end of the row and notes that it is preserved and used together with the seven buildings taken over by the junior college. Its value lies in how well the row conveys large prewar timber warehouses standing eave to eave.

What to Look For at the Akita City Araya Library Warehouse Building

Akita City says the warehouse now holds a general and children's section, a collection of local sake-related materials, and a reference and local history corner. Books in the general and children's section can be borrowed, while the sake and local history materials are for use in the library. Browsing books under the roof of a great rice store is the experience this building offers.

Visiting

The Akita City Araya Library Warehouse Building is open to the public as part of the Araya Library, and anyone may enter during library hours, taking in the great space and the roof frame while browsing.

Opening hours, closing days and directions are on the Former Araya National Warehouses page.