Kura means storehouse. These buildings were common during the Edo Era for merchants, or others with a bit of money, to store their valued possessions. They weren’t made out of wood, like most buildings in Japan at the time, so they could survive fires that frequently wiped out communities. You still see them occasionally when you get out into the Japanese countryside. However, in big cities, like Tokyo, they are now exceedingly rare.

This house, in Central Tokyo, was a bit north of my Nishi-Waseda apartment, maybe in Takada or Zoshigaya–I don’t remember exactly anymore. I’m not sure if they built the house around the kura, or if they built the kura with the house and merely designed it to look old. The entire property screams, “I have valuables that need protecting!”