Jinchokan Moriya Archives
After visiting “Furusugi-an" in Chino City, Nagano Prefecture, I decided to head to the “Jinchokan Moriya Archives", also located within the city.
Moriya family served as the Jinchokan (Chief Administrator of Suwa Shrine Kamisha) until the early Meiji period.
This building was constructed to house the archives containing their documents.
In the summer of 1987, the Moriya family expressed a desire through the Agency for Cultural Affairs to deposit the Moriya documents with the National Museum of Japanese History in Sakura City, Chiba Prefecture, citing difficulties in managing the documents themselves.
The museum stated that while preservation in Suwa would be ideal, if conditions did not permit, they would temporarily accept the documents.
In December of the same year, Nagano Prefecture, the Cultural Properties Protection Association, the Shinano Historical Society, and others held discussions and requested the construction of a storage facility for the Moriya documents in Chino City. Chino City, which had previously been actively involved in repairing the Moriya residence, decided to proceed with construction and commissioned Fujimori Terunobu to design it.
The basic design was by Mr. Fujimori, with Uchida Yoshio of Shusaku-sha handling the design and management.
The museum was completed in March 1991 and opened in April.
The roof is covered with locally sourced teppei-seki stone (slab-like andesite). The first-floor walls are board-clad, while the second floor appears to have earthen walls, giving the impression of natural materials. However, it is actually reinforced concrete construction. The walls were coated with straw-reinforced mortar, then sprayed with earth.
Inside the museum.
These walls also use straw-reinforced mortar, yet visitors mistake them for earthen walls.
This exhibit recreates the Ontosai ritual of Suwa Shirine Kamisha. Presently, the ritual is performed using a stuffed deer head.
The second floor has a storage room, but the stairs leading up to it are raised like a drawbridge, so a staff has to pull down it to walk up.
I wanted to walk the lower half of the stairs, but it was off-limits.
The wooden-paneled wall beside the entrance.
Circling around to the side reveals the building’s shape. The right side is the entrance. Viewed from above, it’s a rectangular single-story section joined diagonally to a square two-story section.
Because of this, the toilet ended up in a triangular room. Couldn’t they have done something about it ? It’s so awkward to use…
The south side of the museum slopes up to a hill where a shrine stands.
About twenty meters beyond the shrine, on a higher hill, stood an ancient burial mound. An explanatory plaque read “Jinchokan Kofun”. According to it, the mound is estimated to have been constructed around the 7th century. The open hole was originally not an entrance but the rear wall of the burial chamber. Though the exact era is unknown, it seems stones were later removed, leaving it in this state.
Descending the hill, I exit the archives grounds. This is the Prayer Hall near the gate, but it is off-limits.。
Near the archives stands the Takabe Community Center, designed by Fujimori. Let’s just look at its exterior.
This community center was completed in 2021.
Like the archives, trees pierce through its roof. This is the west side of the building.
The exterior walls use charred and polished cedar wood.
The entrance is on the east side.
I heard that many local residents participated in tasks like stripping cypress bark, making lighting fixtures, and hammering copper roofing sheets.
Actually, near the Jinchokan Moriya Archives are buildings designed by Mr. Fujimori, such as the “Takasugi-an,” but I ended up skipping them this time. I plan to visit them someday.
[References]
“On the Preservation and Utilization of the Moriya Documents” (by Yazaki Takenori / published in “Shinano” Vol. 44, No. 12 / Shinano Historical Society / 1992)
“Houses and Townscapes: Separate Volume” July 1997 issue (Housing Production Promotion Foundation / 1997)
"Jinchokan Moriya Archives, Chino City" pamphlet (Jinchokan Moriya Archives, Chino City)
[Related article]
"Visiting 'Furusugi-an’" (2025-12-01)