A white and black office among the miso storehouses
The Hatcho Miso Head Office Building (八丁味噌本社事務所, also written Hatchō Miso) is a wooden office of 1927 in the Hatchō district of Okazaki, Aichi Prefecture, added to Japan's national register as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 1996. It belongs to Hatcho Miso Limited Partnership, a firm trading under the name Kakukyū that has made miso on this site since 1645.
Walk in from the street and the surprise is the colour. The yard is lined with storehouses clad in dark boarding, and in the middle of them stands a building with white pilasters and a raised central bay, closer in outline to a small European basilica than to anything around it. Two long ranges run north and south, linked by a courtyard, an earth-floored passage and a connecting corridor, and the whole is counted in the register as a single building. The roof is sheet metal and the building area is 339 square meters.
The reasons for putting it up are on record. The firm's shop had stood on the old Tōkaidō highway, but the opening of National Route 1 shifted the flow of traffic through the town and the premises had grown cramped. Then came news of the 1923 Great Kantō Earthquake, and with it the conviction that the company needed something solidly built. Work began in the last years of the Taishō era and finished in 1927.
Clerical work has been done here ever since. The company still calls it the head office, and has altered it very little.
Why it went on the national register
The Hatcho Miso Head Office Building was registered under the criterion covering buildings that set a standard in design. Its register number is 23-0001, and the storehouse beside it, registered the same day in 1996, is 23-0002. Together they were the first two properties in Aichi Prefecture to be listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property, at a moment when the registration system itself was only weeks old.
Registration is a lighter instrument than designation, and it exists partly for buildings like this one: still in daily use, still owned by the family firm that built them. What the assessors picked out was the way a Western-looking office sits in a yard of Japanese brewing sheds without quarrelling with them. White uprights against dark brown boarding answer the black planking and white plaster of the storehouses. The form is imported; the palette is local.
The interior was finished in Western style as well, a point the registration record notes. A family company in a provincial castle town, at the height of its trade, chose this as the face it showed the world, and the choice has survived intact.
What to look for from the forecourt
Only the outside of the Hatcho Miso Head Office Building is open, so everything worth seeing is gathered on the front elevation. Start with the raised central bay and the ornament at its ridge. The lower roofs to either side leave a step in the skyline, and that step is what gives the facade its shape.
Then look at the wall itself. White pilasters stand at even intervals, and horizontal boarding in a deep brown fills the spaces between them. Vertical white crossing horizontal brown: the pattern reads from the far side of the yard.
Where the two ranges join is harder to see. Follow the run of the roof and you can work out that what looks like a break is in fact the courtyard, with the passage and corridor tying the halves together behind it.
Some of the building's history is not visible at all, and is worth knowing anyway. The upper floor of the north range served as a room for entertaining, and later housed community gatherings including a Sunday school. The reception room was fitted out with thick cherry and cedar timbers, the kind of material a business orders when trade is good. Knowing this changes how the window openings look from outside.
In the forecourt grows a cycad said to have been taken in when the keep of Okazaki Castle was pulled down under the Meiji government's castle abolition order. Locals at the time reportedly said of this building that in an earthquake you were safer inside it than out in the street.
Visiting: hours, cost and access
The interior of the Hatcho Miso Head Office Building is closed. Visitors see the exterior only. The grounds themselves are open as a visitor site, so you can walk up to the building and study it at close range.
Guided tours are free. They run between 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m., leaving on the hour on weekdays and on the hour and half hour at weekends and on public holidays. The 12:30 p.m. departure should be checked at the counter on the day. Each tour takes up to 50 people and the desk closes 5 minutes before departure. Individual visitors need no reservation; groups must book ahead.
The route runs from reception through the museum storehouse, the maturing cellar and a tasting counter to the shop. You walk outdoors between buildings, so the content is sometimes adjusted in the hottest part of a summer afternoon. The shop opens from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The site closes for the New Year period, from December 31 to January 2.
As for photography, since only the exterior of the Hatcho Miso Head Office Building is open, pictures are taken from the yard. The tour route passes working production areas, so follow the guide's instructions about photography inside the storehouses.
By train, the site is 5 minutes on foot from Okazakikōenmae Station on the Meitetsu Nagoya Main Line or Naka-Okazaki Station on the Aichi Loop Line, which stand next to each other. By car it is 15 minutes from the Okazaki interchange on the Tōmei Expressway, with parking for 40 cars and 10 coaches.
- 📍 Plan Your Visit to Aichi
- Find tours, activities & transport passes near Hatcho Miso Head Office Building
- [ Nagoya Castle & Atsuta Shrine History Tours ]
Q&A
- Can you go inside the Hatcho Miso Head Office Building?
- No. The interior is closed and only the exterior is open to visitors, so the reception room and the upper floor cannot be seen. The storehouse on the same site, the Hatcho Miso Head Office Storehouse (Historical Museum), is open inside and forms part of the guided tour.
- How much does it cost to visit the Hatcho Miso Head Office Building, and do I need to book?
- Admission is free and individual visitors do not need a reservation. Guided tours leave between 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m., on the hour on weekdays and every half hour at weekends and on public holidays. Groups are asked to book in advance.
- How do I reach the Hatcho Miso Head Office Building by train?
- It is a 5 minute walk from either Okazakikōenmae Station on the Meitetsu Nagoya Main Line or Naka-Okazaki Station on the Aichi Loop Line. The two stations adjoin one another, so the walk is the same from both. Drivers come 15 minutes from the Okazaki interchange on the Tōmei Expressway, and there is parking for 40 cars.
- When was the Hatcho Miso Head Office Building built and registered?
- It was completed in 1927, with construction beginning in the closing years of the Taishō era. It entered the national register in 1996 under register number 23-0001, and together with the storehouse registered the same day it became one of the first two registered properties in Aichi Prefecture.
- Can I take photographs at the Hatcho Miso Head Office Building?
- Pictures are taken from the yard, since only the exterior is open. The front elevation is easiest to photograph in the morning. Inside the storehouses the tour passes working production areas, so ask the guide before taking photographs there.
Basic Information
| Name | Hatcho Miso Head Office Building |
|---|---|
| Location | 69 Oukandori, Hachijocho, Okazaki City, Aichi Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure) |
| Year Designated | Registered in 1996 |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Wooden, 2 storeys, sheet-metal roof, building area 339 square meters |
| Owner | Hatcho Miso Limited Partnership |
| Public Access | Exterior only, admission free |
References
- Database of National Cultural Properties, Hatcho Miso Head Office Building (Agency for Cultural Affairs)
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00000050
- Cultural Heritage Online, Hatcho Miso Head Office Building
- https://bunka.nii.ac.jp/heritages/detail/184780
- Registered structures: Hatcho Miso head office and storehouse (Okazaki City)
- https://www.city.okazaki.lg.jp/1300/1304/1332/p021520.html
- Head office building (Hatcho Miso Limited Partnership)
- https://www.kakukyu.jp/facilities_honsha.asp
- Tours and access map (Hatcho Miso Limited Partnership)
- https://www.kakukyu.jp/facilities.asp
- Information for groups and travel agents (Hatcho Miso Limited Partnership)
- https://www.kakukyu.jp/facilities_tours.asp
- Company profile and history (Hatcho Miso Limited Partnership)
- https://www.kakukyu.jp/company_outline.asp
Last verified: 2026.09.02