Fureaikan Shirafuji (Former Maruta Clinic) Western-Style Building

What Is the Fureaikan Shirafuji (Former Maruta Clinic) Western-Style Building?

The Fureaikan Shirafuji (Former Maruta Clinic) Western-Style Building (ふれあい館しらふじ（旧丸田医院）洋館) is a single-storey wooden clinic building in Suzaka City, Nagano Prefecture, completed in 1910 and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on September 19, 2003.

It was the consulting wing of Maruta Kisuke's practice when he opened here, and it stands on the south side of the courtyard, facing the main house. The hipped Yosemune-zukuri roof, laid with sangawara tiles, runs east to west, and the entrance is on the gable end, a Tsumairi arrangement. Inside are four rooms; the footprint is 75 square metres.

Kisuke had moved his practice to this lot in Suzaka around 1909, so the building went up the following year.

Why It Was Registered: Western Style in Japanese Plaster

It was registered as a model of architectural form. The look is Western, but the method is Japanese Dozo-zukuri storehouse construction, with thick plastered walls. Only the cornice under the eaves is white; everything else is finished in black plaster.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs praises the detailing. Pilasters and Nageshi rails are modelled in plaster on the outer walls, the panels between them carry picture-frame mouldings, and cornice mouldings run round the window frames. A plasterer has translated the columns and window surrounds of Western architecture into his own craft, which is how a small-town doctor of the late Meiji era gave his surgery a modern face.

What to Look For

Look first at the colour. Black plaster walls are edged along the top by a single white cornice line, a striking change for eyes used to Suzaka's white storehouses.

The raised pilasters and rails read most sharply when morning or evening light rakes across them, and the framed panels and moulded window surrounds reward a closer look.

Inside, look up. According to the inn, every room has a different plaster ornament on its ceiling, taken as evidence that Suzaka had highly skilled plasterers at the time.

Visiting the Western-Style Building

The Fureaikan Shirafuji Western-Style Building now holds guest rooms of the Shirafuji rental inn: two bedrooms, a sofa room and a kitchen, 71.85 square metres in all by the inn's figures. Only overnight guests go inside, and because it stands behind the wall it is hardly visible from the street.

The plaster ceilings can be seen during a stay. No photography rule is published, so ask the inn. Directions and booking terms are on the Fureaikan Shirafuji page.