Kurashiki Kawahan (Bikan Historical Quarter)

Kurashiki Kawahan is a merchant town centered on the Kurashiki River in Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture. It was selected as an Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings on 21 May 1979. It lies at the southern foot of Tsurugata-yama (36.8 meters above sea level), and the district now covers 15.0 hectares. It is known for its riverside views, but the town's origin lies less in the waterside scenery than in the economy of a port where goods gathered.

The turning point came in 1642 (Kan'ei 19), when Kurashiki became shogunate land. As it worked as a commercial port where tribute rice and farm products came in and went out, merchants who had made their fortunes from the town's prosperity gained power. In time the town came to be lined mainly with honkawara-buki nuriya-zukuri townhouses and storehouses (kura). The rows of white walls and tiles seen today are not scenery made for tourism but an expression of the wealth the merchants stored up.

According to the National Council of Traditional Building Preservation Districts, the buildings are notable for the many tsushi-nikai (low-ceilinged second-floor) houses, and for main houses and storehouses roofed with honkawara tiles. Tiles are not limited to the main roofs: on the nuriya-zukuri (plastered) buildings they are often applied over the eave roofs and elsewhere. Some storehouses combine namako-kabe walls with mizukiri-bisashi drip eaves, and the tall walls are capped with tile as well. If you notice the differences by material and part, namako-kabe walls, drip eaves and honkawara roofs, you will see that even white walls are each built differently. The Council says these buildings harmonize to create a distinctive landscape that feels bright within its weightiness.

In the history of preservation, after the merger of Kurashiki, Kojima and Tamashima in 1967, the Kurashiki Traditional Beauty Preservation Ordinance was promulgated in 1968. A survey followed in 1973, a preservation ordinance was enacted in 1978, and the district became a national district in 1979. In 1998 the area was expanded from 13.5 to 15.0 hectares. In 1999 a 21.0-hectare Bikan district, combining the 15.0-hectare preservation district with a surrounding 6.0-hectare traditional beauty zone, was fixed in the city plan. Night lighting, produced by the lighting designer Motoko Ishii, began in 2005 and was completed in 2009. The burying of utility lines was completed in 2013.

The chairperson of a local preservation group says that before the designation Kurashiki had a fish market and ironworks and felt more lived-in than it does now. Among residents' efforts, the Kurashiki Machiya Trust and a group to protect and nurture the preservation district were both founded in 2006. In restoring the Honmachi Misaka house, the trust repaired structural members with old timber wherever possible, with help from many volunteers. Events include the Setouchi no Hanayome river boat procession in May and the Kurashiki Byobu Matsuri in October. To read the town, walk with attention to how the southern foot of Tsurugata-yama relates to the river and how the buildings line it; the structure of a town developed as a port becomes easier to understand.