Kura (storehouse)

Kura (倉 or 蔵) are traditional Japanese storehouses. They are commonly durable buildings built from timber, stone or clay used to safely store valuable commodities.

Kura in rural communities are normally of simpler construction and used for storing grain or rice. Those in towns are more elaborate, with a structural timber frame covered in a fireproof, clay outer coating. Early religious kura were built in a "log cabin" style, whilst those used later to store gunpowder were constructed from stone.

Earthen kura, dozō have evolved a particular set of construction techniques in order to make them relatively fireproof.

History

The kura storehouse was specifically used to store precious items. Other sorts of storehouses such as outbuildings (naya) and sheds (koya) were used to store more mundane items. The first kura appear during the Yayoi period (300BC - 300AD) and they evolved into takakura (literally tall storehouse) that were built on columns raised from the ground and reached via a ladder from underneath. They were especially prevalent on the Ryukyu Islands and Amami Ōshima. During the Nara period (710-794) the government taxed the country in rice and kura were frequently used to store it. After the introduction of Buddhism to Japan kura were often used to religious items such as sutra.

Kura

Kura may refer to:

See also

Kura (restaurant)

Kura zushi is a sushi restaurant chain located in Japan. It has 362 locations in Japan, and a few more outside Japan. While it is a conveyor belt sushi chain, it relies on a high level of automation allowing the average location to function with fifteen to twenty staff members.

References

Kura (company)

Kura is a contact centre company based in Glasgow. They provide outsourced contact centre services and software, including customer service, retention, win-back, up-sell, cross-sell, web chat, complaints handling, appointment setting, general customer management and software development.

History

Kura was formulated (as Response) in 1991 and is headquartered in Glasgow. The company were part of Murray International Holdings Ltd and owned by Sir David Murray until late 2014. Founded under Murray after the publication of the Taylor Report into safety at football grounds. One of the outcomes of the report required tickets to be sold prior to games. This spurred on many clubs to open call centres to deal with ticket sales and stadium seating arrangements. Murray, the chairman of Rangers F.C at the time, set up the company to deal with these enquiries.

Under Murray they acquired a contact centre company called Thus for £4m in 2004 and a specialist business process software company called Carnegie Information Systems in 2005. Trading under the RHL (Response Handling Ltd) name until in February 2007 it was shortened to Response. In June 2008 they also acquired a local software company known as Inisoft, meaning the company offer in-house software capability to potential clients.