A Yamanashi County Office Standing in Aichi
The Former Higashiyamanashi County Office (旧山梨県東山梨郡役所, Kyu Yamanashi-ken Higashiyamanashi Gunyakusho) is a wooden pseudo-Western government building completed in 1885 and now preserved at the Meiji Mura open-air museum in Inuyama City, Aichi Prefecture, where it was designated an Important Cultural Property on 11 June 1966.
The address on the designation certificate reads Aichi, but the building spent its working life in Yamanashi, some 150 kilometres away. It was raised in the village of Kusakabe, in what is now Yamanashi City, and moved to Inuyama in 1964. It remains the only building of its architectural type standing outside Yamanashi Prefecture.
The reason a county office existed at all lies in the County, Ward, Town and Village Organisation Act of 1878. Under it, a county head appointed by the prefectural governor took charge of administration within each county, and offices were built across the country to house them. Higashiyamanashi County first operated out of a borrowed temple building from January 1879. Local supporters raised subscriptions for a purpose-built office, ground was broken on 7 July 1885, the frame was raised on 28 August, and the building was finished on 10 October. The cost came to a little over 5,600 yen.
Fujimura-Style: Western Forms Built by Village Carpenters
Fujimura Shiro governed Yamanashi from 1873 to 1887, first as prefectural governor under the old title and later as the prefecture's first appointed governor. He pushed hard for Western-looking public buildings, and local builders obliged. Between 1874 and 1887 at least a hundred schools, offices and houses went up in the resulting manner, which came to carry his name.
Nobody in those villages had trained in Western construction. The carpenters worked from prints, from descriptions, and from whatever they had glimpsed in the treaty ports. What they produced is classified as giyofu, a term meaning imitation Western style, though imitation undersells the process. Timber framing, plaster finishing and traditional joinery were turned toward an unfamiliar set of forms, and the results look like neither one tradition nor the other.
The Higashiyamanashi office is treated as the representative example. The master carpenter was Akaba Yoshizo. The contractor and plasterer was Tsuchiya Shozo, who worked on a great many Fujimura-style buildings across the prefecture.
Its plan is symmetrical. A two-storey central block carries a veranda on both levels, and single-storey wings with hipped-and-gabled roofs extend to either side. Because the entrance porch and the end rooms project forward, the outline drawn on paper resembles the letter E, and the type is known locally by that description. Symmetrical composition of this kind was standard for government buildings of the period, following the model set by the Home Ministry.
Roof framing is where the hybrid becomes structural rather than decorative. The central block uses Western trusses. The wings use traditional Japanese roof framing. Two systems of carpentry meet inside one roof, and the resulting assembly is complicated enough to be listed among the building's notable features.
What to Look For
Approach from the front and the details resolve themselves one at a time. The entrance arch is semicircular, with an openwork transom above it. The sash windows are of the vertically sliding kind, and each is framed by a border of black plaster, which reads as a drawn line against the pale wall. The walls themselves are lime plaster over a timber frame, with clay roof tiles above. Recorded building area is 286.4 square metres.
Then step into the entrance hall and look up. The plaster ceiling carries a central medallion worked by Tsuchiya Shozo, and its motifs are flowers, birds, wind and moon: the standard repertoire of Japanese decorative painting, executed in a Western plasterwork technique, inside a building pretending to be Western, built by men who had never seen one. Little else in the building compresses the period so neatly.
The office served its original purpose until the county system was abolished in March 1923. From March 1927 until 1962 it housed the Kusakabe police station. It then passed into private hands, and in September 1964 the owner, Tsuruta Eiichi of Yamanashi City, donated it to Meiji Mura. Dismantling began that October and reconstruction on the museum site was completed in July 1965.
One visitor of note passed through on 30 May 1906. Mori Ogai, the novelist, was then serving as an army surgeon general on regional inspection, and recorded his stop in his personal notes.
Visiting the Building at Meiji Mura
The building stands at Block 2, Site 16 within the museum grounds. Meiji Mura occupies a hillside above Iruka Pond in Inuyama, and covers roughly a square kilometre, so reaching this particular building means a walk. Buses and a village tram run through the site for those who would rather not cross it on foot.
Access is by museum admission ticket. Opening hours and closed days shift with the season, and the museum publishes current information on its website, which is worth checking before setting out. There is no separate charge for entering individual buildings.
Interiors here are open in a way that designated buildings elsewhere rarely are. Visitors walk through the rooms rather than viewing them from a rope line, which is what makes the ceiling medallion visible at all. Personal photography is permitted throughout the museum grounds; commercial or organised shoots require prior application.
Two other Important Cultural Properties stand within a short walk, the former Mie Prefectural Office and the former Uji-Yamada post office, which allows a direct comparison of how Meiji officialdom looked when designed by trained architects and when improvised by village builders.
Inuyama is reached from Nagoya in about half an hour by Meitetsu train. From Inuyama Station a bus runs to the museum gate.
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Q&A
- Where is the Former Higashiyamanashi County Office located, and why is a Yamanashi building in Aichi?
- It stands at Meiji Mura in Inuyama City, Aichi Prefecture. The building was constructed in 1885 in Kusakabe village, now part of Yamanashi City, and was donated to the museum in September 1964. Dismantling and reconstruction were completed by July 1965, so the designation records its present Aichi address.
- Can visitors go inside the Former Higashiyamanashi County Office?
- Yes. The interior is open to anyone holding a Meiji Mura admission ticket, with no separate fee for the building. Visitors walk through the rooms, which is the only way to see the plaster ceiling medallion in the entrance hall.
- What makes the Former Higashiyamanashi County Office architecturally significant?
- It is regarded as the representative example of Fujimura-style pseudo-Western architecture, a manner promoted by Yamanashi governor Fujimura Shiro and built by local carpenters without Western training. It is also the only Fujimura-style building preserved outside Yamanashi Prefecture.
- When was the Former Higashiyamanashi County Office designated an Important Cultural Property?
- On 11 June 1966, under designation number 01624. A ridge tag recording the construction is designated as an attached item.
- Is photography allowed at the Former Higashiyamanashi County Office?
- Personal photography is permitted throughout Meiji Mura, including inside this building. Commercial shoots and organised productions require advance application to the museum.
Basic Information
| Name | Former Higashiyamanashi County Office, Yamanashi Prefecture |
|---|---|
| Location | 1 Uchiyama, Inuyama City, Aichi Prefecture (Meiji Mura, Block 2 Site 16). Originally Kusakabe, now Yamanashi City, Yamanashi Prefecture |
| Designation | Important Cultural Property (structures), designation number 01624 |
| Year Designated | 11 June 1966 |
| Quantity | 1 building (with 1 ridge tag as an attached item) |
| Dimensions | Timber frame, building area 286.4 square metres, two storeys with single-storey wings on both sides, clay tile roof |
| Owner | Meiji Mura Foundation |
| Public Access | Open to the public, interior accessible with museum admission. Hours and closed days vary seasonally |
References
- National Cultural Properties Database, Agency for Cultural Affairs — Former Higashiyamanashi County Office
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/102/1244
- Cultural Heritage Online — Former Higashiyamanashi County Office
- https://online.bunka.go.jp/heritages/detail/122054
- Meiji Mura — Higashiyamanashi County Office
- https://www.meijimura.com/sight/%E6%9D%B1%E5%B1%B1%E6%A2%A8%E9%83%A1%E5%BD%B9%E6%89%80/
- Meiji Mura — Visitor Information
- https://www.meijimura.com/guide/
- Meiji Mura — Access
- https://www.meijimura.com/guide/access/
Last verified: 2026.08.29