The Japanese half of a medical compound of 1927
The Former Imaizumi Clinic Ward Building (旧今泉医院病室棟, Kyū Imaizumi Iin Byōshitsutō) is the inpatient wing of a rural medical practice of 1927 at Ouma Nishi in Mitsucho, Toyokawa City, Aichi Prefecture, added to the national register as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 2 March 2004. It is a single story timber structure roofed in tile, with a building area of 81 square meters.
It does not stand alone. The Former Imaizumi Clinic Ward Building is attached to the northeast corner of the clinic building, whose symmetrical Western front faces the street. Behind that front the roof form, the walls and the openings all revert to Japanese practice. One practice, built in one year, drew a line in its own architecture between the part patients saw and the part they slept in.
A third registered structure, a small concrete hand washing station, sits in the front garden. All three were registered on the same day under separate numbers. This article covers the ward.
Why a plain building was worth registering
The registration criterion applied here is the one for buildings that serve as a model of design, and the registration number is 23-0131. The public notice was issued on 29 March 2004. The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes the building as one that shows the developmental process of hospital architecture, and files it under welfare and culture, sub-class buildings.
That phrase is doing real work. When this compound was built, a country doctor who decided to keep patients overnight had almost no Japanese model to copy. Purpose built hospital wards existed in the cities and in the army, but not in a fishing and farming village. The builders here solved the problem by reaching for the type they knew best, the ordinary house, and lining up rooms inside it.
The value of the Former Imaizumi Clinic Ward Building lies in that halfway condition. A Western consulting hall and a domestic sleeping wing went up in the same year on the same plot, and the pair survives together. Very few sites in Japan preserve both sides of that transition side by side.
A ward laid out like a house
The roof is Kirizuma-zukuri, a simple gable, covered in Sangawara-buki pantiles. Set against the hipped Yosemune-zukuri roof of the clinic in front, the difference in roof form alone marks the difference in purpose.
Entry is at the west end, through a doorway with an earth floor. Shoes come off there and the visitor steps up, exactly as in a farmhouse. Patients who had just walked in their shoes across the Western consulting rooms crossed the yard and changed their habits at this threshold.
Inside, three sickrooms of six mats each run in a row. Calling them sickrooms understates how domestic they are; they are guest rooms in all but name. Only the eastern room carries a tokonoma, the recessed alcove that marks the room of highest standing in a Japanese house. Someone decided that one of the three patients would be lodged more formally than the others, which says something about a village practice that a floor plan alone would not.
Board verandas run along both the south and the north sides of the rooms. A veranda serves as corridor, light well and ventilation shaft at once. Carrying one along the north face as well is a bold choice in a cold winter, and suggests that daylight and airflow were considered more important than warmth.
None of this is visible to a visitor, since the interior is closed. The description above follows the Agency for Cultural Affairs record. From the street, look for the low gabled roof set back behind the clinic and to its right.
Visiting
The Former Imaizumi Clinic Ward Building is privately owned and closed to visitors. Toyokawa City records the owner of all three registered structures on this plot as a private individual, and no regular or special opening had been announced as of August 2026.
What remains is an exterior view from the public lane. Because the ward sits behind the clinic, only its roof and part of a wall clear the building in front. The gable end and the run of pantiles are still legible, as is the drop in height between the two structures.
Photographing the exterior from the road is unrestricted. The plot is occupied, so avoid pointing a lens through the gate and avoid leaving a tripod standing. The lane is narrow enough that a stopped car blocks it.
The nearest station is Aichi-Mito on the JR Tokaido Main Line, about 700 metres north, a walk of roughly ten minutes. There is no visitor parking. Enquiries about the registered structures go to the Lifelong Learning Division of the Toyokawa City Board of Education on 0533-88-8035.
- 📍 Plan Your Visit to Aichi
- Find tours, activities & transport passes near Former Imaizumi Clinic Ward Building
- [ Nagoya Castle & Atsuta Shrine History Tours ]
Q&A
- Can you go inside the Former Imaizumi Clinic Ward Building?
- No. The building is privately owned, the interior is closed and the grounds are not open to visitors. Viewing is limited to what can be seen from the public lane, where the ward appears as a low gabled roof set behind and to the right of the clinic building.
- What is the interior of the Former Imaizumi Clinic Ward Building like?
- According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs record, an earth floored entrance opens at the west end and three sickrooms of six mats each run in a row inside. Only the eastern room has a tokonoma alcove, and board verandas pass along the south and north sides of the rooms.
- How do you reach the Former Imaizumi Clinic Ward Building?
- Take the JR Tokaido Main Line to Aichi-Mito Station and walk about 700 metres south, roughly ten minutes. The address is 37 Ouma Nishi, Mitsucho, Toyokawa City, Aichi Prefecture, the same plot as the clinic building. There is no visitor parking and the lanes are narrow.
- When was the Former Imaizumi Clinic Ward Building built and registered?
- It was built in 1927, the same year as the clinic building. Registration as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property took effect on 2 March 2004, with the public notice on 29 March of that year, under registration number 23-0131.
- Why is the ward Japanese in style when the clinic in front is Western?
- At the time there was no established Japanese model for a small rural inpatient wing, so builders adapted the house type they already knew. The consulting building announced modern medicine to the street, while the sleeping quarters stayed close to what patients were used to. That split is why the pair is valued as evidence of hospital architecture taking shape.
Basic Information
| Name | Former Imaizumi Clinic Ward Building |
|---|---|
| Location | 37 Ouma Nishi, Mitsucho, Toyokawa City, Aichi Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) |
| Year Designated | Registered 2004 |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Wooden, single story, tiled roof, building area 81 square meters |
| Owner | Private |
| Public Access | Interior closed; partly visible from the public road |
References
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, National Cultural Properties Database: Former Imaizumi Clinic Ward Building
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00003990
- Cultural Heritage Online: Former Imaizumi Clinic Ward Building
- https://online.bunka.go.jp/heritages/detail/188720
- Toyokawa City: List of Designated and Registered Cultural Properties
- https://www.city.toyokawa.lg.jp/soshiki/kyoikuiinkai/shogaigakushu/2/5/3/1/4093.html
Last verified: 2026.08.31