Akahadayama Motogama Exhibition Room and Former Workshop

What the Akahadayama Motogama Exhibition Room and Former Workshop Is

The Akahadayama Motogama Exhibition Room and Former Workshop (赤膚山元窯展示室及び旧作業場, Akahadayama Motogama Tenjishitsu oyobi Kyū Sagyōba) is a wooden, partly 2-storey building at Akahadayama Motogama, an Akahada ware pottery in Akahadacho, Nara City, Nara Prefecture; built in the late Meiji period and extended in 1942, it was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on July 31, 2007. It has a tiled roof and a building area of 215 square meters.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes the Akahadayama Motogama Exhibition Room and Former Workshop as a gabled building 12 ken long (Ketayuki) and 3 ken deep (Harima), with its ridge running east to west. A tea room projects from the southeast corner, and eaves extend along the south and west sides. The walls are in Shinkabe style with the posts left exposed, and the west half, first used as the workshop, has latticed windows.

Registration: The Hinge of the Pottery Site

The Akahadayama Motogama Exhibition Room and Former Workshop is registration number 29-0115, listed as a structure that contributes to the historic landscape of the country, and was registered on the same day as the large and medium kilns. It carries the first of the three consecutive numbers.

The national description calls the building the hinge of the site, linking the family's living quarters with the kilns. At Akahadayama Motogama the climbing kilns line the slope to the north, and this long east to west building lies in front of them toward the south. Pots fired in the kilns could be finished in the workshop and shown to customers under the same roof, so the whole working day of the pottery was gathered into one building.

The extension dates to 1942, but the national description does not say which part of the building it was.

Highlights: Latticed Windows and a Truss Upstairs

Seen from outside, the Akahadayama Motogama Exhibition Room and Former Workshop draws the eye first to the latticed windows of the west half, a reminder of its working past. Set against the tea room projecting from the southeast corner, they show a workplace and a space for receiving guests sharing one building. The deep eaves along the south and west sides give the building much of its character.

Inside, the roof framing on the upper floor is the feature to look for. Material the pottery presented at a Nara City lecture shows a Truss in the upper floor of the exhibition room, called the display hall in that handout. A Western-style triangulated roof frame thus sits above a Japanese building with exposed posts, an unusual combination worth noticing in a building of the late Meiji period.

Visiting the Akahadayama Motogama Exhibition Room and Former Workshop

The 2015 visitor guide from the Kansai Bureau of Economy, Trade and Industry includes the exhibition room and former workshop in a pottery visit, but it also bans photography inside them. Enjoy the interior of the Akahadayama Motogama Exhibition Room and Former Workshop with your eyes only, and ask at reception before photographing the exterior.

The guide does not say whether visitors can go upstairs to see the truss. If that interests you, contact the pottery before your visit. Opening hours and directions are on the Akahadayama Motogama page.