Urushibara Family Residence Liquid Manure Barn

What the Liquid Manure Barn Is

The Urushibara Family Residence Liquid Manure Barn (漆原家住宅水肥納屋, Urushibara-ke Jūtaku Mizugoe Naya) in Mitani-cho, Takamatsu City, Kagawa Prefecture, is an early Meiji era (1868 to 1882) outbuilding where the household made and stored liquid fertilizer, listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on February 27, 2023.

Mizugoe was manure, largely human waste, diluted with water and left to mature before it went on the fields; until chemical fertilizers arrived it was the backbone of farming in much of Japan. The barn is a single-storey timber building with a tiled roof, a building area of 34 square meters, and a side gate of its own.

A Working Farm Behind the Gate

The Urushibara Family Residence Liquid Manure Barn is register no. 37-0481, listed for its contribution to the historic landscape. The Agency for Cultural Affairs singles it out as a valuable example that shows what farming in the area was like.

The Urushibara were goshi, but they were also village headmen who farmed. The main house and gate speak of rank; this barn, set squarely on the street front, is a reminder that the same family worked its own land.

A Blind Wall and Three Great Jars

The barn continues east from the nagayamon gate along the south edge of the estate, under a Hongawarabuki roof. A side gate opens at its east end.

On the road side it presents a thick plastered wall (Ōkabe) with no window or door. Toward the inside of the estate it is left wide open. From outside it is a wall; from inside it is a workspace.

The interior has no raised floor. Three large ceramic jars are set into it, and it was in these that the liquid manure was matured. A storage space is partitioned off on the east side.

Seeing the Liquid Manure Barn

Since the Urushibara Family Residence Liquid Manure Barn fronts the road, its windowless wall and tiled roof can be seen from outside, right next to the nagayamon gate. The side gate at its east end belongs to the same frontage.

The interior, with its jars, opens onto the inside of the estate and cannot be seen from the road. It is part of a private home and is not open to the public.