Tokuyama Family Residence Well

A Limestone Well to the Front Left of the House

The Tokuyama Family Residence Well (渡久山家住宅井戸, Tokuyama-ke Jūtaku Ido) is a stone well of 1894, with additions from the early Shōwa period, on the Tokuyama homestead in Ōkawa, Ishigaki City, Okinawa Prefecture, and it was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 2 October 2007.

The Tokuyama Family Residence Well lies to the front left of the main house, which Ishigaki City gives as southwest of it. The furiya, the combined toilet and pigsty of about the same date, is to the rear left, so the water supply and the pig pen sit one behind the other on the same side of the house.

The national record dates the well to 1894 "with early Shōwa additions": a Meiji well kept in use and improved in the early years of Shōwa. The description does not say which parts were added.

Why It Was Registered: A Record of Life on Well Water

The Tokuyama Family Residence Well was registered as a model of its type. The Agency for Cultural Affairs says it shows the history of how well water was used.

What survives is more than a shaft. The lifting gear and the washing area where the water was used are still in place alongside it, so the whole sequence of drawing, carrying and using water can be read in one small set-up. That completeness is the core of its value.

What to Look For: Curb, Pulley Support and Washing Floor

The curb of the Tokuyama Family Residence Well is made of Ryukyu limestone, 1.2 metres across and 0.5 metres high, a low stone ring that comes to just above the knee. The structure entry in the national record gives an area of 1.1 square metres.

Set against the curb is a concrete support for the pulley used to raise the bucket. Its material is plainly different from the stone ring, and it stands close alongside it.

Around the curb is a washing floor 3 metres square, a level surface where water could be used as soon as it was drawn. Compare the three parts: limestone curb, concrete pulley support and washing floor, each in a different material and each with its own job.

Viewing the Well

The Tokuyama Family Residence Well stands beside the main house on private land and is not open to the public. The grounds cannot be entered, and we have not been able to confirm if it can be seen from the road.

The photographs in the Agency for Cultural Affairs database show the curb and pulley support. On site, please keep to the road outside the gateway.