Two hundred years ago, this city was linked to Tokyo by a river. Merchants carried rice and sweet potatoes by ship. 100 years ago, there was a big fire and most of the houses were burnt.
A few fireproof houses like this were not burnt. After the fire, merchants built their houses by this style called "kurazukuri" which had 30cm thick earthen walls.
When a fire occurs, every window is shut with two doors. This door is very thick and shaped like pleats. These notches do not allow fire invading inside. And furthermore, to prevent the awful invasion of heated air, mud is applied completely on the slite surface openings between the doors and window. Merchants kept mud for 365 days.
This is the wooden belfry of the city.
The right side wall on the roof has an important role to prevent a fire coming from the house next door.
You can see a unique design on both sides of the roof. Fire-extinguishing was quite difficult in those days. The owner of this house decorated the sides with a water wave design.