A piece of history farewelled

Across the paddock from Obanchan chi's a neighbor had a very old, but beautiful Kura, which are traditional storehouses in Japan. They were/are used to house rice and household treasures. Despite being constructed of mud walls and bamboo sticks for bracing, they were defininatly made strong and to last. Our neighbor told us that her kura dated back to the Edo period.　　　　　　　　　
　　　　　　　　　　　　　

So on one particular day as we were working on our toilet area we noticed the roof tiles being removed. I thought they were just removing them to re-fit them, but sadly unbeknowns to us we noticed later in the day that they were pulling down this historical beauty! 
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

The neighbor told us that the storage shed behind the kura was leaning over too much and with the possibility of it falling on her house, she didn't want to take the risk. So sadly the storage shed and kura had to go. 

Not one to miss an opportunity we walked over to see if we could perhaps score some timber when we noticed some treasures just at the entrance.

If you look very, very closely on the right hand side of the entrance you will see a brown sliding door.

Ok, it's hard to see...but look, these are the beauties we heaved back to Obachan chi's.

          

Isn't the lock impressive!

                                   
The demo guy said we could have whatever we wanted but that we had to remove it ourselves. So armed with our safety boots and gloves we heaved these very heavy, but oh so beautiful doors back to Obachan's. We also picked up some planks of wood that can be re-used for the exterior of Obachan's, where the corrugated iron has rusted. 
We haven't completely decided where the doors will be fitted. Maybe one could be a storm shutter encasement and the other featured somewhere inside the house. 

One afternoon we took a stroll around Obachan's local town and we found a wonderful example for what we could possibly do with these beautiful doors. This is a newly opened restaurant (that was previously a kimono shop) that has used the kura door as their main entrance. I love how they have fitted an open glass window to the side. We also noticed that they may have re-sized the door, as they would be pretty heavy doors to slide open. Food for thought....

            

As we walked on further we discovered more of these doors, in their original state as doors to a kura that sits just behind what was once another larger kimono shop in the town. 

We feel very fortunate that we rescued a little part of history and wished we had of saved some more treasures that day, but these demo guys work fast. 

So after being in the heat and feeling sticky and hot, its time for a relaxing onsen....near the beach!  

P.S You may have noticed that I have started an Instragram account, so follow along as I capture moments in Izu.