Moving a 320 year old house across an ocean from Japan to California • Hacker News Board

Re: Moving a 320 year old house across an ocean from Japan to California

#11

Post by noonespecial » Mon, May 27, 2019, 3:59 PM UTC

NeedMoreTea wrote: post #8

There's been quite a few buildings and churches deconstructed and transported to the US over the years. Here's two neighbouring properties in Richmond, Virginia, moved in the 20s - one a 16th century priory, that's now next to a 15th century manor house. They weren't even in neighbouring counties in England: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_House https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agecroft_Hall

Fascinating. My grandparents and now parents live in Stratford Hills. I've looked across the river at those places my entire life and never knew the stories. Thanks for that!

Re: Moving a 320 year old house across an ocean from Japan to California

#12

Post by rwmj » Mon, May 27, 2019, 4:49 PM UTC

It's actually not unusual to dismantle and reconstruct these houses. There's a famous story about an American journalist who moved to Japan and lived in a rebuilt 18th century minka which had been stored dismantled for several years, video: https://www.nytimes.com/video/travel/100000003554407/minka-a...

Re: Moving a 320 year old house across an ocean from Japan to California

#13

Post by ericol » Mon, May 27, 2019, 4:50 PM UTC

I upvoted this submission just because of the title. Apologies.

Re: Moving a 320 year old house across an ocean from Japan to California

#14

Post by gchucky » Mon, May 27, 2019, 4:51 PM UTC

gryson wrote: post #5

There are two open-air museums in Inuyama, Japan that this reminded me of: (1) Meiji Mura, and (2) Little World. Meiji Mura is an impressive collection of Meiji-era buildings that have been gathered from around Japan, including the lobby of the Tokyo Imperial Hotel (designed by Frank Lloyd Wright) and two full-size churches from Kyoto. Little World is primarily a collection of traditional houses that have been transp…

There's also the Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum outside of Tokyo[1] (in Koganei, not the one in Ryogoku) that has some three dozen buildings that have been moved there. They go back as far as the Edo period. Well worth the time if you're in the area (though admittedly, kinda hard to get to).

[1] https://www.tatemonoen.jp/english/

Re: Moving a 320 year old house across an ocean from Japan to California

#15

Post by kevin_thibedeau » Mon, May 27, 2019, 5:55 PM UTC

> Between 1603 and 1867, Japan existed in a state of harmony and economic growth.

That's a woefully untrue fantasy. Japan endured multiple famines and economic crises prior to Meiji.

Re: Moving a 320 year old house across an ocean from Japan to California

#16

Post by AngryData » Mon, May 27, 2019, 10:17 PM UTC

While it is pretty cool it can be done, it still seems like such a waste of resources, time and effort. It would be cheaper to build an identical house using traditional techniques and the end result would be the same. There are lots of reasons to need to move an existing building, there are very little reasons to move that building half way across the globe.

It just seems like extravagance for extravagance sake.