TYPOLOGICAL STUDY ON OYA-STONE BUILDING AND TOWNSCAPE

Case study of Nishine district, Tokujirou town, Utsunomiya city

Abstract

There are many buildings built of Oya-stone in Utsunomiya city, Tochigi prefecture, where Oya town, the diggings of Oya-stone, is located. Especially at Nishine district in Tokujirou town, where Tokujira-stone of green tuff same as Oya-stone was dug, there are many storehouses built of these stones and peculiar townscape can be seen. It is considered that architectural culture with locality can be found in these buildings with local materials through building industries and technologies. In recent years, some of these stone-buildings have been demolished and decreased, because chance of use has decreased and the owners have changed to their child generation. Therefore, preservation of the buildings and townscape are required. Accordingly, the aim of this paper is to clarify the characteristic types of the stone-buildings and the townscape with features of local materials and technologies through investigation and typological analysis. Firstly, we found 62 stone-buildings at 22 sites in Nishine district. Almost 60 percent of the buildings are built of stone. Moreover, features of stone buildings were examined such as construction age, number of stories, function of buildings, construction method of stone, finishing and joints of stone, decoration of windows, position of entrance and roof form. Construction method of stones was mainly classified to laying stones, cladding stones and foundation stones. Functions of buildings were mainly classified to “Kura”; a storehouse for belongings with closed door, “Naya”; a storehouse for agricultural instrument or garage with wide openings on the ground floor, “Omoya”; a main residence and “Hanare”; a subsidiary residence. Through these features, the 6 types of stone-buildings were analyzed. They are namely “Two story-cladding stone-Kura” (A) which was built in old period like Meiji era with roofing tile of stone, “One story-laying stone-Naya” (B-1) which is the most simple building, “One story-laying stone-Kura” (B-2) which is relatively few in this district, “Two story-laying stone-Naya” (C-1) and “Two story-laying stone-Kura” (C-2) which are popular in this district, “One story-foundation stone-Naya” (D-1) and “One story-foundation stone-Omoya” (D-2) which is a typical rural residence with half-hipped-roof. Secondly, the composition of sites was analyzed through layout of stone-buildings and relationship to the main highway. As a result, there was a tendency that the stone-buildings are located in the front part of the sites which face to the highway. Moreover, boundary elements such as stone-fence or hedge and elements in the inner part of the sites such as stone-gate or small stone-shrine were examined. Finally, the townscape along the highway was analyzed through the types of stone-buildings and the compositions of sites. As a result, we found 3 characteristic types of townscape. In the west side of the entrance of highway (I), the townscape is covered with hedge in front of “One story-foundation stone-Omoya” (D-2) and so on. In the west middle of the highway (II), “Laying stone-Naya” (B-1, C-1) with stone-fence are located in the front part of the sites and multiple types of stone-building are located in the inner part of the sites. In addition, stone-gates and stone-shrines are located in the deepest part of the several sites, therefore, the townscape with depth are formed in this area. In the east middle of the highway (III), where stone-fence continues along three sites in a row, “Two story-cladding stone-Kura” (A) with decorated windows and “Laying stone-Naya” (B-1, C-1) are located in the front part of the sites. Therefore, continuous stone façade becomes the center of the townscape along the highway.