Japan is a country surrounded by seas and has abundant marine resources. Therefore, there are various hut for fishery along coast. Boathouse "Funagoya" is one of them, and is a hut to put a small wooden ship inside. There are a lot of boathouses in Oki Islands. A purpose of this study is to confirm the present conditions of the boathouse in Oki Islands.
At first, we confirmed the distribution of boathouses. Then, we performed hearing investigation about the placement and made a survey of representative boathouses. Thereafter, we considered about relationship between boathouse and climate, occupations and local culture.
We found new boathouses in 3 villages, and confirmed that there were boathouses in old days in 16 villages. There are few boathouses in northwest area of Okinoshima-cho, where we can see many cliffs. And, it became clear that there are many boathouses in areas rich economically in old days.
We classified location of the boathouse into 3 types. Then, we checked placement and the possession relations of boathouses in Iibi village having representative landscape. We confirmed that boathouses protect wind from sea. And it was revealed that the tendency of the owner is different from the east side of the Iibi River in the west.
We classified the form of the boathouse into 4 types. And we showed the difference of type and constructional element, by comparing all boathouses. Continuous type boathouses have long span in beam direction, and solo type boathouses have long span in ridge direction. The length 1-ken of solo type is bigger than continuous type. In areas where the length of ridge direction is big, they make walls to village side and make space for storage.
Villagers built boathouses by themself. They made boathouses with miscellaneous small trees and scrap woods of houses. Pillar of boathouse was buried in the ground, roof was made with the peel of cedar. We investigated five representative boathouses, and clarified the details of the building method of boathouses. Solo type boathouses are made with many logs. Continuous type boathouses are made with square timbers and joint metals. Most of continuous type boathouses are new and are built by public fund. And one of them is made with traditional method of “Zairai-kouhou”using ground sill.
Almost all boathouses are not in use now, and seaside landscape with boathouses is disappearing. But, boathouses are local precious cultural resources, and have high value as tourist attractions. It will be important to preserve and utilize them.
