Arakaki Family Residence East Pond

A Stone-Walled Pond East of the House

Arakaki Family Residence East Pond (新垣家住宅東池, Arakaki-ke Jūtaku Higashi-ike) is a stone pond with an attached wall, built around 1896 at a homestead in Shuri Sueyoshi, Naha City, Okinawa, and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 31 July 2007. The pond covers 5.8 square metres and comes with 5.9 metres of stone walling.

It lies east of the main house, set against the eastern boundary of the plot and facing the east side of the house.

Do not picture a garden pond. This is a block of masonry with a basin cut into it.

How It Is Built

The whole thing is a long, narrow run of stone walling, 7 metres north to south and 1.4 metres east to west. On the face toward the house, a rectangular basin has been let into it, 2.8 metres by 0.8 metres.

On the other three sides the stone is built up to 1.8 metres. The basin opens only toward the house, and the rest is a tall stone wall; the Agency for Cultural Affairs notes that this gives the Arakaki Family Residence East Pond a distinctive appearance.

The Agency says nothing about what the pond was used for, and we could not find a source explaining how its water was collected or used.

Why It Was Registered

It was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape, for the distinctive combination of wall and pond, together with the wall, hinpun, furu and South Pond of the same homestead.

The two ponds here could hardly be more different. The Arakaki Family Residence East Pond is a straight-edged basin built into a wall 1.8 metres high; the South Pond is an irregular polygon ringed with natural stone. Having both on one plot is part of what makes the stonework here worth attention.

What to Notice and Visiting

Notice how pond and wall are combined. From the house side it reads as a rectangular pool; from any other side it is simply a stone wall 1.8 metres high.

The pond is inside the grounds of a private home and is not open to the public. It sits against the east boundary, but we have not confirmed whether it can be seen from the road. Stay off the property, and keep residents and the inside of the grounds out of any photographs.