Kura: Traditional Warehouses in Shizuoka Prefecture 40: Edo Era Village Kura in Nakajima Primary School, Suruga Ku, Shizuoka City!

“Kura” (in Japanese 蔵 or 倉) means “warehouse” or “Storehouse”.
In traditional Japan, especially during the Edo Era, as most of buildings and urba/village structures were made of wood, fires were the bane of society by and large.
However well-protected a fire would consume a house or buildings and all its properties within minutes.
Hence a special building or warehouse was needed to protect goods and properties against such a catastrophe.
But erecting a storehouse solely made of concrete, stones and some metal cost a vast amount of silver and gold and only rich merchants and nobility could afford them. Even castles could not be built entirely of stone then.

Yesterday I was cycling in Nakajima District in Suruga Ku, that the part of of Shizuoka City south of Shizuoka JR Station, an area I still have a lot to learn about in spite of my living in Shizuoka City for 40 years!

Veering into of the straight streets going south I found myself cycling past Nakajima Elementary School.

That is when I espied a rare site beyond the School Disaster Evacuation sign!

A small and very old, but splendidly preserved with little or no repairs standing on the grounds of an elementary school!
I had to investigate!

Simple but stolid enough!

Thanks to this welcome sign I learned it had been built in Edo Era to serve as a warehouse for Nakajima Village as the area was called then. It served mainly as a warehouse for all important documents concerning the Village.
The Elementary School was built by it only many years later.
Apparently it is the only one of its kind in Shizuoka City!

It was wholly built with uncut or cut stones!

It was also located so as toe let the prevailing winds provide needed draft through the two windows opened at each extremity!

I should come back to take a picture of it with cherry tree in blooms!

Do you notice the opening at its base?

This is to make sure that any water accumulated between the high foundation and the kura can be expelled quickly and to insure the same area stays dry!