Kamamura Family Residence North Well

What the North Well Is

The Kamamura Family Residence North Well (鎌村家住宅北井戸) 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 behind the main house, on its north side. The square wellhead is made of four slabs of the local stone called aoishi, or blue stone, and a paved washing area surrounds it.

Why It Was Registered

Like the other Kamamura items, the well was listed as a structure contributing to the historic landscape. Its registration number is 36-0066.

According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs, the wellhead stands 0.5 meters high and is 0.8 meters square. Its four slabs are joined with half-lap joints, each stone notched to half its thickness so that neighboring slabs lock together at the corners without any metal fittings.

The shaft is 0.7 meters across and 3.3 meters deep, lined with stone. Around it is a stone-paved washing area measuring 2.1 meters north to south and 2.8 meters east to west. What survives is not just a hole in the ground but the whole working station where water was drawn and used.

In the Yoshino River basin, aoishi generally means green schist, a stone that splits readily into flat sheets and turns up in local garden stones and walls. The builders used that property here, making the wellhead from thin slabs.

What to Look For

The wellhead of the Kamamura Family Residence North Well rises to about knee height. Look at the corners and you should see the stepped, interlocking outline of the half-lap joints. The faint blue-green tint of the stone is typical of this part of Tokushima.

The paved washing area spreads out around your feet, a rectangle longer east to west. Behind the main house, it was probably used for kitchen work and washing.

One caution about the published figures. The database's structure field gives the North Well an area of 1.0 square meters, but a wellhead 0.8 meters square works out to 0.64 square meters. The East Well has the reverse: 0.64 square meters in the structure field and a 1.0-meter-square wellhead in the description. The area values for the two wells may have been swapped.

Visiting

The Kamamura Family Residence North Well sits in the private back area of a family home. Visits must be arranged with the owner in advance, and how close you can get depends on the owner's guidance.

Look at the outside of the wellhead and the paving rather than leaning over the shaft. Ask about photography when you apply.