The Last Building to Arrive
The Kuzuri Woolen Industry Warehouse is a store building in Tamanoi, Kisogawa-cho, Ichinomiya, Aichi Prefecture, built around 1957 and entered on the national list of Registered Tangible Cultural Property (buildings) on 17 August 2020. It is a single-storey timber structure with a gabled roof of cement tiles and a floor area of 52 square metres, attached to the south end of the raw yarn store.
The plan is a long rectangle running north to south, divided inside into two rooms, east and west. Each holds shelving, and both have served the mill as storage. The walls are lapped boarding, matching the neighbouring yarn store in material and roof form so that the two read as one continuous elevation.
Of the nine registered buildings, the Kuzuri Woolen Industry Warehouse is the youngest. From the late Edo storehouse to this one, about 120 years of building sit within a single boundary wall.
Three Buildings Along the Western Edge
The registration criterion was contribution to the historic landscape, and the Agency for Cultural Affairs notes that this warehouse shapes the western side of the site together with the mill and the yarn store. Its registration number, 23-0557, is the last of the nine.
Working from the north: mill, yarn store, warehouse. Sawtooth ridges give way to gables, and the boarded wall runs on southwards. Taken alone this is an unremarkable timber shed. Taken as the end of a row, it shows how the site was organised, with making and keeping laid out along a single line.
The construction date of about 1957 coincides with the widening of the mill and the extension of the men's dormitory. More people and more machinery meant more to store. The Kuzuri Woolen Industry Warehouse is that decision made solid.
Why Two Rooms
Dividing a narrow plan into two rooms suggests the contents were never of one kind. Yarn and cloth behave differently and tolerate damp differently, and finished bolts need separating from work in progress. A single partition keeps the traffic in and out from mixing as well.
The cement tiles match those on the yarn store next door. They differ in colour from the clay pantiles of the mill and the houses, so the western strip of the site reads in a slightly different key. Three postwar buildings share a period through their materials as much as their dates.
Seen from outside, the Kuzuri Woolen Industry Warehouse is an undecorated box. The interest lies closer in: the spacing of the board joints, the way the rafters show at the gable end, the finish at the ridge. These are the marks of ordinary carpentry done well in the late 1950s.
Visiting
The Kuzuri Woolen Industry Warehouse is in daily use and is not open on a walk-in basis. The official Aichi Prefecture tourism site notes that the company sometimes accepts visitors by prior arrangement. Telephone 0586-87-3323 at least two weeks ahead. Two or three visitors up to about ten are accepted, larger parties need discussion, and Saturdays and Sundays are non-working days. Checked on 31 August 2026.
No published photography policy could be found. Finished goods and raw material are kept here, so raise the question when booking.
Tamanoi Station on the Meitetsu Bisai Line is about a two-minute walk. 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. Standing on the western edge of the plot, it presents a boarded wall continuous with the yarn store to anyone on the road outside.
- 📍 Plan Your Visit to Aichi
- Find tours, activities & transport passes near Kuzuri Woolen Industry Warehouse
- [ Nagoya Castle & Atsuta Shrine History Tours ]
Q&A
- Can I visit the Kuzuri Woolen Industry Warehouse?
- It remains in daily use, so there is no regular opening. Telephone 0586-87-3323 at least two weeks ahead and the company may agree to a site visit. Weekends are non-working days.
- What kind of building is the Kuzuri Woolen Industry Warehouse?
- A single-storey timber building of about 1957 with a gabled cement-tile roof and a floor area of 52 square metres, its long rectangular plan divided into an eastern and a western room.
- Where does the Kuzuri Woolen Industry Warehouse sit among the nine registered buildings?
- It is the youngest of them, and together with the mill and the raw yarn store it forms the run of buildings along the western edge of the site.
- When was the warehouse registered as a cultural property?
- On 17 August 2020, as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (building), registration number 23-0557.
- How do I get to the site?
- Tamanoi Station on the Meitetsu Bisai Line is about two minutes away on foot, and the site is roughly 15 minutes by car from the Ichinomiya-nishi expressway exit.
Basic Information
| Name | Kuzuri Woolen Industry Warehouse |
|---|---|
| Location | 1 Miyamae, Tamanoi, Kisogawa-cho, Ichinomiya, Aichi Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Building) |
| Year Designated | Registered in 2020 |
| Quantity | 1 structure |
| Dimensions | Single-storey timber structure, cement-tile roof, floor area 52 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 Warehouse
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00013410
- 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