Furuta Akira Memorial Museum

Furuta Akira Memorial Museum

The Furuta Akira Memorial Museum (古田晁記念館) in Kitaono, Shiojiri City, Nagano Prefecture, is a facility of Shiojiri City whose exhibition hall, connecting corridor and gate of the early Showa period were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on April 28, 2009 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

According to the Shiojiri City Library, Furuta Akira was born in 1906 in the village of Chikumaji, now Kitaono in Shiojiri, and founded the publisher Chikuma Shobo in 1940. He died in 1973 at the age of 67.

The Three Structures

The exhibition hall, toward the west of the site facing east, is a two-storey storehouse-style building with namako-tiled walls up to waist height and three tatami rooms with wide glazed openings upstairs (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The connecting corridor joins the exhibition hall's upper floor to the main house; it rests on sloping logs and is lined with glazed doors cut to follow the slope, in a light sukiya style (Agency for Cultural Affairs). The gate, a bracketed gate 1.8 metres wide toward the east, keeps the traditional right-angled approach of a residence. Each structure is described on its own page.

Visiting

No official information on the museum's opening days and hours was confirmed. Check Shiojiri City's information before visiting.