Fureaikan Shirafuji (Former Maruta Clinic) Storage Shed

What Is the Fureaikan Shirafuji (Former Maruta Clinic) Storage Shed?

The Fureaikan Shirafuji (Former Maruta Clinic) Storage Shed (ふれあい館しらふじ（旧丸田医院）物置) is a late Meiji-period storehouse-style building in Suzaka City, Nagano Prefecture, once the X-ray room of the Maruta Clinic, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on September 19, 2003.

It stands on the east side of the courtyard, between the main house and the Western-style clinic building of 1910. Its gabled Kirizuma-zukuri roof of sangawara tiles runs east to west, with the entrance on the gable end, and the Dozo-zukuri walls rise to a second floor over part of the plan. The footprint is 41 square metres.

The registered name calls it a storage shed, but while the clinic was running it held the practice's X-ray equipment.

Why It Was Registered: How a Town Clinic Was Laid Out

It was registered for contributing to the historic landscape. The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes it as valuable for understanding how a provincial clinic of the modern era was put together.

In form it is a traditional plastered storehouse, yet the Geya lean-to on its courtyard side doubles as a corridor linking the main house to the north with the clinic building to the south. An examination room placed between home and surgery and tied to both by a covered passage shows how a late Meiji doctor adapted a family estate into a working practice.

What to Look For

The detail to notice is that lean-to: the roof sweeps down off the storehouse wall to shelter a walkway, so family and staff could cross between the two main buildings without stepping into the rain.

There is also the pairing itself, an X-ray room inside thick storehouse walls. Nothing on the outside announces a medical use; it looks like any modest kura.

Visiting the Storage Shed

The Fureaikan Shirafuji Storage Shed sits inside the wall on the east side of the courtyard and cannot be seen from the street. The inn publishes nothing about opening it, and there is no public access.

The estate now operates as the Shirafuji rental inn, and guests moving between the main house and the Western-style building use the covered corridor. No photography rule is published. Directions and booking terms are on the Fureaikan Shirafuji page.