Kamamura Family Residence Barn

What the Barn Is

The Kamamura Family Residence Barn (鎌村家住宅納屋) is a two-storey timber barn built around 1897 in Boso, Mima-cho, Mima City, Tokushima Prefecture, and entered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on December 5, 2007.

It stands east of the main house with its ridge running north to south. The main body measures 8 by 2 and a half Ken bays, and a lean-to (Geya) 1 and a half bays deep runs along the west side, bringing the building area to 194 square meters. The roof is hongawara tile.

Why It Was Registered

The barn was listed, with the rest of the homestead, as a structure contributing to the historic landscape. Its registration number is 36-0063.

According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs, the southern two bays were living quarters and the northern end held stalls for horses and cattle. People and draft animals shared one roof, and the division of the building still maps the working life of a farm that relied on animals in the fields.

The barn sits on a retaining wall of cut stone (Ishigaki) built along the paddy fields on the east. The agency describes the result as a distinctive arrangement: the stone wall takes up the drop at the edge of the property, and the barn is set right on its lip, shaping how the homestead looks from the fields.

What to Look For

The roof of the Kamamura Family Residence Barn changes shape from one end to the other. The south end is hipped-and-gabled (Irimoya-zukuri); the north end is a plain gable (Kirizuma-zukuri). One reading is that the more formal irimoya marks the end where people lived, and the simpler gable the end where the animals were kept. Walk from one end to the other and compare the two.

Around the east side, the cut-stone wall rises from the edge of the paddies and the barn's wall continues straight up from it. Stone and building together make the east face of the compound look taller than it is.

The lean-to on the west faces the main house, and the space between the two buildings was likely a working yard. The bathhouse adjoins the barn to the north.

Visiting

The barn is an outbuilding of a private home, and any visit must be arranged with the owner in advance. Ask then whether the living room and animal stalls can be seen inside.

The contrast between the two roof ends is visible from within the compound. The stone wall and east face are best seen from the paddy side, but the surrounding fields are private farmland, so view them only from where you are allowed to stand. Check with the owner about photography as well.