The Western Face Beside the Gate
The Kuzuri Woolen Industry Office is a small office building in Tamanoi, Kisogawa-cho, Ichinomiya, Aichi Prefecture, built around 1932 and entered on the national list of Registered Tangible Cultural Property (buildings) on 17 August 2020. It stands two storeys high in timber under a hipped roof of clay pantiles, with a floor area of 55 square metres.
Pass through the gate at the centre of the southern boundary and the main house is on your right, this office on your left. The walls are finished in overlapping horizontal boards, a treatment called shitamiita, which gives the elevation the banded look of a small Western building. The roof rests on king-post trusses, a European framing method rather than a Japanese one.
Climb the stairs, though, and the character changes. Two ten-mat tatami rooms sit one behind the other on the upper floor, the principal one fitted with an alcove and staggered shelves. Western outside, Japanese inside. A corridor on the west side runs straight on into the family's detached residence, so office and dwelling share a single circulation route.
Why a Tatami Room Above a Business Office
The ground floor is a single undivided room where the clerical work of the firm was done. The tatami rooms upstairs existed because selling cloth was a seated business. A bolt of fabric is unrolled across the mats, held up to the light and judged by hand before a price is agreed. The alcove and the shelves gave that transaction a setting.
Small factories of the early Showa period often presented a Western front to the world and kept Japanese rooms behind it for guests. The Kuzuri Woolen Industry Office fits that pattern into a very small footprint. It was registered under the criterion of contribution to the historic landscape, with registration number 23-0550, one of nine buildings on the site listed the same day.
That the office and the mill went up in the same year matters. In 1932 the firm brought in Schoenherr looms and turned to wool, and in doing so built both the place where cloth was made and the place where it was sold.
What to Look At
Stand close to the wall and you see the shadow lines cast by each overlapping board, evenly spaced from ground to eaves. Board thickness and overlap decide how dark those lines read, so the building looks noticeably different under cloud and under sun.
The hipped roof slopes away on all four sides. The main house opposite carries the same roof form in the same tiles, so from just inside the gate a matched pair frames the view towards the mill. No architect's name survives, but the symmetry about the gate looks deliberate.
The corridor leading west from the Kuzuri Woolen Industry Office towards the detached residence is hard to see from outside. If you are shown around the yard, look for that junction. It preserves an approach in which workplace and household were treated as one continuous building rather than two.
Visiting
The Kuzuri Woolen Industry Office is still in daily use and is not open to the public on a regular basis. The official Aichi Prefecture tourism site notes that the company will sometimes admit visitors to the compound if arrangements are made beforehand. Telephone 0586-87-3323 at least two weeks in advance. Parties of two or three up to about ten are accepted, larger groups need discussion, and Saturdays and Sundays are non-working days. Checked on 31 August 2026.
No published photography policy could be found. As this is an active workplace, confirm when you book.
Tamanoi Station on the Meitetsu Bisai Line is about two minutes away on foot. By car, allow about 15 minutes from the Ichinomiya-nishi exit of the Tokai-Hokuriku Expressway or about 25 minutes from the Ichinomiya interchange of the Meishin Expressway. The boarded walls and hipped roof are visible from the road in front of the gate.
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Q&A
- Can I go inside the Kuzuri Woolen Industry Office?
- It remains a working office, so there is no regular opening. Telephone 0586-87-3323 at least two weeks ahead and the company may admit visitors to the compound. Weekends are non-working days.
- How do I reach the Kuzuri Woolen Industry Office?
- It is about a two-minute walk from Tamanoi Station on the Meitetsu Bisai Line, or roughly 15 minutes by car from the Ichinomiya-nishi exit of the Tokai-Hokuriku Expressway.
- Why does the Kuzuri Woolen Industry Office look Western on the outside?
- Small factories of the early Showa period often used a Western exterior as a public face. Upstairs, however, are two ten-mat tatami rooms with an alcove and shelves, so the interior is thoroughly Japanese.
- When was the office building registered?
- On 17 August 2020, as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (building), registration number 23-0550.
- How large is the building?
- Two storeys of timber construction with a floor area of 55 square metres: one undivided room below and two ten-mat tatami rooms above.
Basic Information
| Name | Kuzuri Woolen Industry Office |
|---|---|
| Location | 1 Miyamae, Tamanoi, Kisogawa-cho, Ichinomiya, Aichi Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Building) |
| Year Designated | Registered in 2020 |
| Quantity | 1 structure |
| Dimensions | 2-storey timber structure, tiled roof, floor area 55 square metres |
| Owner | Not disclosed (privately owned) |
| Public Access | Normally closed; visits by prior arrangement |
References
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, National Cultural Properties Database: Kuzuri Woolen Industry Office
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00013403
- Ichinomiya City: Cultural Properties in Ichinomiya
- https://www.city.ichinomiya.aichi.jp/katsuryokusouzou/hakubutsukan/1044092/1024202/1036232.html
- Aichi Now, official Aichi Prefecture tourism site: Kuzuri Woolen Industry Co., Ltd.
- https://aichinow.pref.aichi.jp/spots/detail/3024/
- Ichinomiya Tourism Association: Sawtooth Roofs of the Bishu Weaving District, vol. 1
- https://www.138ss.com/feature/detail/11/
Last verified: 2026.08.31