A tall kura in Shizuoka City
“Kura” (in japanese 蔵 or 倉) means “warehouse” or “Storehouse”.
In traditonal 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.
Can you spot the small one in far distance? Discovered in Numazu City!
Except in Kyoto and other touristic regions, or unless designated as cultural properties, most large ones have been pulled down as…
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Japan: SEV Student Trip with Mutsumi 