Urushibara Family Residence Firewood Barn

What the Firewood Barn Is

The Urushibara Family Residence Firewood Barn (漆原家住宅木納屋, Urushibara-ke Jūtaku Kinaya) in Mitani-cho, Takamatsu City, Kagawa Prefecture, is an early Meiji era (1868 to 1882) barn at the southeast corner of a rural samurai estate, listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on February 27, 2023.

It is a single-storey timber building with a tiled roof and a building area of 65 square meters. The "ki" in its Japanese name means firewood rather than timber: the building is said to have once been used to store fuel.

Part of the Outer Line

The Urushibara Family Residence Firewood Barn is register no. 37-0482, listed for its contribution to the historic landscape. In the Agency for Cultural Affairs' words, it helps form the solid outer boundary of the estate.

Walk the south side from west to east and you pass earthen wall, nagayamon gate, liquid manure barn and then this barn, with no break between wall and building. Standing at the corner, the firewood barn closes the east end of that line.

Storehouse-Solid Outside, Open Within

The roof is a gable (Kirizuma-zukuri) laid in Hongawarabuki. The building runs 16.4 meters, nearly twice the length of its neighbor, the liquid manure barn.

Its two faces could hardly be more different. On the road side the wall is built in the thick, fire-resistant Dozo-zukuri manner, with not a single opening. On the side facing into the estate there is no wall at all, which made it easy to carry fuel in and out. Inside, the earth floor is divided into east and west halves.

The room at the east end of the neighboring nagayamon is said to have been the carpenter's room, and it adjoins this barn. The southeast corner of the estate seems to have been where fuel was kept and repair work was done.

Seeing the Firewood Barn

From the road at the southeast corner you can see the blind, storehouse-built wall of the Urushibara Family Residence Firewood Barn. The corner also gives a view along both the south front and the earthen wall on the east.

The open inner side and the earth floor face into the grounds and cannot be seen from outside. The barn is part of a private home and is not open.