Also simply called *ashiage 足揚. A type of thatched storehouse set upon a platform of four, nine, or sixteen cylindrical posts that raise the floor about 1.2 m above ground level, found on the island of Hachijōjima 八丈島 in the Tokyo metropolitan district. Access is by means of a ladder. The posts supporting the floor joists are relatively slender. The ridge purlin rests upon struts, munazuka 棟束, supported by the principal transverse beams *hari 梁. Peripheral walls, which are made of timber siding, project at an angle of 45 degrees and meet the overhanging roof some distance beyond the line of the inner structure to form a rat guard *nezumigaeshi 鼠返. Originally, ashiagekura supposedly were used to store emergency supplies of food, especially chestnuts, in the event of a bad harvest. On wet days, the farmers use the area beneath these storehouses as a shelter to work in.