2022 Volume 27 Issue 1-2 Pages 57-64
We determined the species composition of wood used in a private house built in 1939 in Matsunaga-cho, a suburb of Fukuyama City, located on the coast of the Seto Inland Sea, southwestern Japan, and examined wood use patterns from the social background at the time of construction. The house contained 316 parts with a total timber volume of 70.4 m3, excluding most of the underfloor components. Species identity was determined for 239 of these parts based on microscopic observations of the wood structure. Pine (Pinus subgen. Diploxylon sp.; P. densiflora and/or P. thunbergii) and Japanese cedar (Cryptomeria japonica) were mainly used for horizontal and vertical components, respectively, which were appropriate choices given the properties of these species. Local vegetation would have been dominated by red pine forests that had regenerated after wood fuel production (for salt production) was abandoned, and cedar plantations were already widespread in this area. Therefore, red pine and cedar were available from these forest sources for use in the house. The roof was designed to be lightweight while maintaining strength, thereby conserving wood resources. At the time of construction, building materials for housing may have been difficult to obtain due to lumber regulations and transportation difficulties resulting from the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937—1939). The use of wood resources in this house indicates that, even under conditions of resource scarcity, locally available species were used efficiently to create minimally designed houses while ensuring structural integrity. The house, located in a suburban area, has provided 80 years of carbon storage, would have used natural resources from the neighborhood as materials, and made full use of construction techniques from various origins to overcome resource constraints while achieving strength, making it an important example of the resource-saving use of natural resources.
