Hiramatsu Family Residence Kurumaya (Former Water Mill)

A Shed That Still Carries the Name of Its Water Wheel

The Hiramatsu Family Residence Kurumaya (Former Water Mill) (平松家住宅車屋（旧水車小屋）, Hiramatsu-ke Jūtaku Kurumaya) is a single-storey timber outbuilding of the late Edo period in Obuse, Nagano Prefecture, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 28 October 2011. It is dated to between 1830 and 1868.

It stands at the west end of the road frontage on the south side of the plot, with the south storehouse next door to the east. It measures 5.3 by 3.0 metres, with a building area of 31 square metres.

Kuruma means "wheel", and here it refers to a water wheel. As the bracketed part of the official name says, the building once housed a water mill. On Japanese farms such mills were generally used for hulling rice or grinding grain, but no published source describes exactly what work was done in the Hiramatsu Family Residence Kurumaya, and none confirms whether any of the mill machinery survives.

A Plain Shed with a Swept-Down Roof

The Hiramatsu Family Residence Kurumaya has a gabled roof (Kirizuma-zukuri) of pan tiles (Sangawara-buki). On the north side the roof is carried straight on down to form a lean-to (Geya), and the entrance opens beneath it. That extension is presumably why the recorded building area is much larger than the 5.3 by 3.0 metre core would suggest.

The walls are finished at the intermediate clay coat, without the white lime topcoat, just like the south storehouse beside it. Earth-coloured walls under tiled roofs are the common look of the 3 buildings on the road.

Holding the End of the Row

What the Agency for Cultural Affairs stresses about the Hiramatsu Family Residence Kurumaya is not its design in isolation but its place in a row. Standing eave to eave with the silkworm rearing house and the south storehouse, it helps form the historic streetscape along the road, and it was registered as contributing to the historic landscape of the country.

From west to east the frontage runs from the single-storey kurumaya to the two-storey south storehouse and on to the tall two-storey silkworm rearing house. The kurumaya supplies the low eave at the western end.

It is a small, low building, yet without it the row would simply stop short. Seen as one of 3 buildings making a single street front, its purpose becomes clear.

Viewing the Hiramatsu Family Residence Kurumaya

Because the Hiramatsu Family Residence Kurumaya faces the south road, it is easy to see from outside. The entrance and lean-to are on the north side, inside the compound, so the road shows mainly the south wall and the gabled roof.

Walk a little way along the road and look at the row at an angle; the difference in eave heights between the 3 buildings reads best that way. The interior is closed and the grounds cannot be entered.

Directions and the general conditions for visiting are on the Hiramatsu Family Residence page.