Kunimi Furusato Exhibition Hall (Former Arinaga Residence)

A Village Headman's Estate Turned Exhibition Hall

The Kunimi Furusato Exhibition Hall (Former Arinaga Residence) (国見ふるさと展示館（旧有永邸）) in Kibe, Kunimi-machi, Kunisaki City, Oita Prefecture, is the estate of Arinaga Saburo, chief village headman at the end of the Edo period, whose main house, detached house, storehouse and stable were registered in 2000 as four Registered Tangible Cultural Properties.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs dates the main house and storehouse to the early Meiji period and the detached house and stable to the mid-Meiji period, all owned by Kunisaki City.

According to the Agency, the estate is now used as the Kunimi Furusato Exhibition Hall.

The Four Buildings

According to the Agency, the main house faces west near the centre of the site, a two-storey timber building with a bold, gently curved hip-and-gable roof and eaves all round. Inside is a six-room plan; the ground floor is a museum and the upper floor a gallery. It has a building area of 343 square metres.

The detached house, southeast of the main house, is reached by a corridor from the guest bath at its southeast corner. Two storeys, hipped and pantiled, it stands on a tortoiseshell stone base, with an earth floor below and rooms of six, ten and eight mats above, now used for training and meetings.

The storehouse, east of the passage at the service end of the main house, stands on a low stone retaining wall; its ground floor is a store and the upper floor an exhibition room, probably once living quarters judging by its east openings. The stable, north of the main house across the passage from the side gate to the stone-pillared east gate, is a long gabled building with open earthen eaves on the south and west.

Using the Estate

The Agency notes that the stable has been actively converted, with toilets at the west, a local produce shop in the middle and a restaurant at the east.

With the main house as museum and gallery, the detached house as training hall, the storehouse as exhibition room and the stable as rest house, the whole headman's estate serves the community as a cultural facility.

Visiting the Kunimi Furusato Exhibition Hall

No official information on opening hours or admission could be found.

Enquiries go to Kunisaki City.