A bank built like a fireproof storehouse
Meiji Village Yasuda Bank Aizu Branch (明治村安田銀行会津支店, Meiji-mura Yasuda Ginkō Aizu Shiten), preserved at Museum Meiji-Mura in Inuyama, Aichi Prefecture, is a black-plastered bank building of 1907 that was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (登録有形文化財) on 1 December 2003.
It began life in Ōmachi, a commercial street in Aizu-Wakamatsu in Fukushima Prefecture, and served the Yasuda Bank until the building was dismantled in 1963. Two years later it was re-erected at Inuyama, in the year Museum Meiji-Mura opened, and it now occupies plot 20 of the museum's Second District.
The construction is Dozo-zukuri, the thick-walled earthen technique developed for storehouses, with a hipped roof in Yosemune-zukuri laid with salt-glazed tiles that fire to a reddish brown. The registry gives the floor area as 154 square meters and describes the structure as single-storey, which surprises anyone who has seen the façade: from outside the building reads as two floors, but the banking hall inside rises through the full height with no floor above it.
Registered as a model of its type
A Registered Tangible Cultural Property can be listed on any of three grounds, and Meiji Village Yasuda Bank Aizu Branch qualified under the first: works that stand as a model of design. What makes it exemplary is the way a merchant's fireproofing tradition was pressed into the service of a modern institution.
Earthen storehouse construction had been in use since the Edo period and remained the ordinary answer to fire until reinforced concrete spread in the Taishō era. Banks took to it with particular enthusiasm. Of the fourteen branches the Yasuda Bank operated in the Tōhoku region, nine were built this way. The logic was commercial rather than merely practical: before deposit insurance, an ordinary customer judged a bank's soundness by whether its premises looked capable of surviving a fire or a storm. A thick black wall was an advertisement.
The detailing carries that argument through. Every exposed timber on the exterior is sealed under black plaster. The west base wall is finished in Namako-kabe, the lattice of raised plaster ridges over square tiles that sheds water and resists burning embers. Even the free-standing posts supporting the entrance canopy, which a lesser building would have made of wood, are cut from stone.
What to look for at the building
Come at the black walls from an angle. The Shikkui on Meiji Village Yasuda Bank Aizu Branch is not painted black but mixed with haizumi, a soot pigment rendered from lamp-black, and burnished during application until the surface returns light like dark glass. In flat overcast light it looks matte; step to one side on a bright day and the wall picks up a sheen.
The roof tiles reward attention too. Salt-glazed tiles of this reddish cast are a northern speciality, common across the Aizu basin where hard winters punish ordinary tilework, and they sit oddly and pleasingly against the black walls.
Inside, the vocabulary switches. Wooden columns rise from the counter line with fluted shafts and carved bases, and the ceiling carries plaster relief across its whole face. Above the customer lobby runs a gallery, open to the hall below, and the free-standing posts and stone base courses at the front of the ground floor take their forms from Western practice. The building argues with itself in an interesting way: traditional load-bearing walls outside, imported ornament within.
Then find the crest. On the boss at the centre of the entrance ceiling and on the eave tiles you will see a mark combining a fundō, the shape of an old money-changer's weight, with the character for three. This was the Yasuda Bank's emblem from its founding. The three is explained as a reference to the scholar Miyoshi no Kiyoyuki of the Heian court, from whom the founder Yasuda Zenjirō's family claimed descent, joined to the weight that money-changers had used as their sign since the Edo period.
Visiting the building
Meiji Village Yasuda Bank Aizu Branch is open, and unusually among the museum's buildings you are meant to go inside and stay a while: the banking hall now houses the Haikara Costume Hall, where visitors put on Meiji-era student dress for photographs at 1,100 yen for a five-minute hire. Tickets are handed out on the spot, from 30 minutes after opening until an hour before closing, and they run out on busy days. You can walk in and look at the interior without taking part.
Admission to the museum covers the building: 2,500 yen for adults, 1,500 yen for high school students, 700 yen for elementary and junior high school students, free for preschool children. Opening hours run 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. from April through July and in September, October and March; 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. in August; 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. in November, extended to 5:00 p.m. at weekends and on holidays; and 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. from December through February. Last entry is 30 minutes before closing. Closed days fall on scattered weekdays, so check the calendar first.
Photography for personal use requires no permission, but tripods and monopods may not be used inside buildings, which applies here. Eating and drinking inside are not allowed.
From Meitetsu Inuyama Station take the Gifu Bus service to Meiji-mura from the east exit, about 20 minutes. By car, leave the Chuo Expressway at Komaki-higashi interchange, 3 kilometers from the museum; parking is 1,000 yen. The Second District lies in the middle of the grounds, a moderate walk from the main gate.
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Q&A
- Can visitors go inside Meiji Village Yasuda Bank Aizu Branch?
- Yes. The banking hall is open to anyone with museum admission, and it operates as a costume-hire counter. You may enter and look at the gallery, ceiling plasterwork and counter columns without hiring anything.
- Why was Meiji Village Yasuda Bank Aizu Branch registered as a cultural property?
- It was listed on 1 December 2003 under the criterion for works that serve as a model of design. It shows how the earthen storehouse tradition was adapted to a modern bank, with Western detail grafted onto a fireproof Japanese shell.
- Where did Meiji Village Yasuda Bank Aizu Branch originally stand?
- In Ōmachi in Aizu-Wakamatsu, Fukushima Prefecture. It was built in 1907, taken down in 1963 and rebuilt at Inuyama in 1965, the year Museum Meiji-Mura opened.
- Is Meiji Village Yasuda Bank Aizu Branch one storey or two?
- The register records it as single-storey. The exterior reads as two floors, but there is no upper floor over the banking hall, which rises the full height of the building with only a gallery set into one side.
- How do I reach Meiji Village Yasuda Bank Aizu Branch?
- Take a Meitetsu train to Inuyama Station and the Gifu Bus service to Meiji-mura from the east exit, roughly 20 minutes. Inside the grounds the building is at plot 20 in the Second District.
Basic Information
| Name | Meiji Village Yasuda Bank Aizu Branch |
|---|---|
| Location | Museum Meiji-Mura, 1 Uchiyama, Inuyama, Aichi Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure) |
| Year Designated | Registered on 1 December 2003 |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Floor area 154 square meters |
| Owner | Meiji Mura Public Interest Foundation |
| Public Access | Interior open, viewable with paid admission to Museum Meiji-Mura |
References
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, National Cultural Properties Database: Meiji Village Yasuda Bank Aizu Branch
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00003664
- Cultural Heritage Online: Meiji Village Yasuda Bank Aizu Branch
- https://bunka.nii.ac.jp/heritages/detail/116544
- Museum Meiji-Mura: Yasuda Bank Aizu Branch
- https://www.meijimura.com/sight/%E5%AE%89%E7%94%B0%E9%8A%80%E8%A1%8C%E4%BC%9A%E6%B4%A5%E6%94%AF%E5%BA%97/
- Museum Meiji-Mura: Opening Schedule
- https://www.meijimura.com/guide/open/
- Museum Meiji-Mura: Admission and Fees
- https://www.meijimura.com/guide/price/
- Museum Meiji-Mura: Access
- https://www.meijimura.com/guide/access/
- Museum Meiji-Mura: Photography in the Grounds
- https://www.meijimura.com/photography/
Last verified: 2026.09.03