TRADITIONAL WOODEN BUILDINGS IN A RURAL DISTRICT TOWN CALLED KIRAGAWA-CHO

We have proposed a procedure to specify houses with poor seismic performance from many houses in historic districts in Japan easily and efficiently. In order to verify our methods, traditional wooden houses in Kiragawa district located in Kochi Prefecture are investigated. Traditional town houses in three districts, Kyoto, Ise, and Narai, are chosen for comparative study with those in Kiragawa. First, we performed ambient vibration measurements of the eleven houses in Kiragawa to identify the natural frequencies. Next, a rigorous seismic evaluation was conducted. Finally, two types of approximation methods to evaluate yield base shear coefficients of traditional wooden houses proposed by the authors are proved to be applicable to houses in four historic districts.