津軽の家　Tsugaru House

Tsugaru House in Aomori Prefecture

Tsugaru House in Aomori Prefecture

Former House of the Nara Family

This is English site


津軽の家

Original location
Hirosaki City, Aomori Prefecture
Period of construction
Mid-19th century (late Edo period)
Floor space
179m2 (54 tsubo)
Form of the house
Rectangular house with stables inside
Donator
Mr. Tetsuo Nara
Tangible cultural property No. 5 of Kawasaki Town, Miyagi Prefecture (designated in 2000)
Supervisor: Dr. Kazuo Kusano, Professor Emeritus at Tohoku Institute of Technology

Original location

The Tsugaru Plain, where this house stood, is marked with a severe climate, strong winds and heavy snowfall during the winter. In addition to rice farming, apple cultivation was also popular.
Members of the Nara family who lived in this house were also engaged in apple cultivation.

Characteristics of the house – long outside eaves called shirashi

This house had long protruding eaves in front of the dirt floor so that people could enter and exit easily even during the heavy snow season.
Such protruding eaves are called shirashi or hiyashi in this region, apparently the dialectal form of the Japanese word hisashi (eaves).




津軽の家平面図

Toroji, Maya Oshikomi Nagashi Inabe Daidoko Nedoko Joi Zashiki /> </map> <p class=Floor plan of Tsugaru House. Scale = 1:40

The toroji was a dirt-floor passageway from the entrance, which was also used as an indoor work area. The maya was situated inside the main house, so it was suitable for keeping the horses out of the cold during the winter.
It is likely that the menja (water use section of the kitchen) was originally located here. After the nagashi (kitchen) was set up in the inner part of the house, this room was used as a closet.
The nagashi was an area used for cooking. Like the toroji, it was also used as an indoor space for agriculture.
This was used as a warehouse to store harvested rice or chaffs. The dirt-floored space covered with plates is the same height as the nearby nagashi to facilitate access.
A open fireplace (called shihoto or yurugi in this region) was located here and was the room regularly used by family members.
This space was divided into two rooms: the one on the left side was a bedroom for the elderly couple and the one on the right side was for the young couple. Children slept on the second floor above the maya or toroji (called mage).
This was the maezashiki (front reception room) immediately after the entrance, where regular visitors were welcomed.
This was the formal guest reception room with a tokonoma, where formal guests were received

Architectural model