Inada Family Earthen-walled Storehouse

Period:

ca. 1870 (Early Meiji Period) 

Former Location:

Kumakogen, Kamiukena, Ehime Prefecture

Designation:

Registered Tangible Cultural Property

A warehouse offering a look at traditional fire-prevention techniques

This dozo warehouse is topped with a thatched, gabled roof designed such that even if the roof burns in a fire, the main body of the structure will remain. The frames of the entrance and windows, as well as boards lining the exterior walls can all be removed, demonstrating the early-modern period’s mainstream fire-prevention measure of hakaishoka, which sought to prevent the spread of fire through partial structural destruction.