Kamamura Family Residence East Well

What the East Well Is

The Kamamura Family Residence East Well (鎌村家住宅東井戸) is a stone-built well from the mid-Meiji period in Boso, Mima-cho, Mima City, Tokushima Prefecture, entered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on December 5, 2007.

It lies east of the main house, just north of the bathhouse. Its square wellhead is built from four slabs of local blue stone, and a washing area opens off its north side. Of the two wells on the property, this is the larger and deeper.

Why It Was Registered

The East Well was listed with the rest of the homestead as a structure contributing to the historic landscape. Its registration number is 36-0067.

According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs, the wellhead is 0.5 meters high and 1.0 meters square, made from four slabs joined with half-lap corners. The shaft is 0.8 meters across and reaches 7 meters deep, more than twice the 3.3 meters of the North Well behind the main house.

Stone paving surrounds the well, and to the north is a washing area 1.5 meters square framed by upright curbstones, presumably to keep water from spilling out. With the bathhouse and barn close by, this well likely supplied the east side of the homestead with water for bathing and farm work.

What to Look For

The feature to notice at the Kamamura Family Residence East Well is the washing area on the north side. It is a defined 1.5-meter square with its own curb, set apart from the general paving. At the North Well, by contrast, the washing area is a flat stretch of paving spreading around the wellhead.

The wellhead is the local aoishi, a blue-green stone that in the Yoshino River area generally means green schist. At 1.0 meters square it is a size up from the North Well, and the half-lap joints at its corners are easy to pick out.

Treat the published figures with care. The database's structure field lists the East Well at 0.64 square meters, yet a 1.0-meter-square wellhead gives 1.0 square meters. The North Well shows the reverse. The area values for the two wells may have been swapped.

Also note that in both the national database and Cultural Heritage Online, the description for the Courtyard Earthen Wall repeats this well's text word for word. The position and measurements make clear that the text belongs to the East Well.

Visiting

The Kamamura Family Residence East Well is on the grounds of a private home, and visits must be arranged with the owner in advance.

From the north side of the bathhouse you can see the wellhead and the curbed washing area together. The shaft is 7 meters deep, so do not lean on the wellhead or look down into it. Ask about photography when you apply.