Arakaki Family Residence Furu

A Stone Pigsty and Toilet Beside the House

Arakaki Family Residence Furu (新垣家住宅フール, Arakaki-ke Jūtaku Fūru) is a cut-stone pigsty and toilet built around 1896 at a homestead in Shuri Sueyoshi, Naha City, Okinawa, and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 31 July 2007. It covers 13 square metres.

In Okinawa, a fūru is the structure that combined the household's pig pens with its toilet. This one stands west of the main house, built against the inside of the western boundary wall.

Household and livestock shared the one structure. The Agency for Cultural Affairs records it as a single installation rather than a building.

How It Is Built

The Arakaki Family Residence Furu measures 6 metres north to south by 2 metres east to west and is divided inside into three compartments.

It is built of cut Ryukyu limestone, blocks of different sizes skilfully fitted together. The wall and the hinpun were laid as rough stone and dressed afterwards; the furu uses stones shaped before they were set, making it the most finely worked stonework on the plot.

The roof is what sets it apart. Along the west side runs a row of three stone arches, one for each compartment.

Why It Was Registered

It was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape. The Agency praises the skill with which the large and small cut stones were assembled, and describes the Arakaki Family Residence Furu as shaping a characteristically Okinawan yard.

The furu survives alongside the house, the wall, the hinpun and the ponds, and was registered as one part of the homestead as it was laid out around 1896. That even a utilitarian outbuilding was built this carefully says something about the standard of all the stonework here.

What to Notice and Visiting

The three arches are the thing to look at. How blocks of different sizes were fitted to make each arch stand is where the mason's skill shows.

The furu stands inside the grounds of a private home, west of the main house, and is not open to the public. Because it backs onto the inside of the west wall, we have not been able to confirm whether any of it can be seen from the road. Stay off the property, and keep residents and the inside of the grounds out of any photographs.