Meiji-mura Kyoto Shichijō Police Box
Inside Museum Meiji-mura, an open-air museum of Meiji-period architecture in Inuyama, Aichi Prefecture, a small police box holds down a street corner much as it once did in Kyoto. It is a single-story wooden building of about 24 square meters, faced in red brick tile and capped with a copper-plate roof. A patrolman was once stationed here at the approach to Nishi Hongan-ji, one of Kyoto's largest temples. Today the building is a Registered Tangible Cultural Property, and a costumed "Meiji policeman" often greets visitors and points the way.
From a Kyoto corner to a hillside in Inuyama
The police box was built in 1912 (Meiji 45), the last year of the Meiji era, on Shichijō Street in Kyoto's Shimogyō Ward. It stood on the corner facing Nishi Hongan-ji, near the entrance to what is now Ryūkoku University. Its red brick-tile skin was no accident. The Ryūkoku University Main Building, a Western-style brick structure completed in 1879 and itself an Important Cultural Property, set the tone for the corner, and the little police box was dressed to match.
According to the museum, the temple provided the land at no cost, and local residents are said to have funded the construction through donations. When a large memorial service at Nishi Hongan-ji drew more than a million pilgrims, this corner became the formal approach from a temporary railway station built to receive them.
In 1969 (Shōwa 44), the building was dismantled and reassembled at Museum Meiji-mura, which had opened four years earlier as a refuge for Meiji buildings facing demolition elsewhere.
Why a humble police box is protected
Japan looks after its built heritage through two parallel systems. The older one "designates" National Treasures and Important Cultural Properties and binds their owners to strict rules on alteration. The Registered Tangible Cultural Property system, introduced in 1996, works more lightly: owners register a building and agree to give notice before major changes, but otherwise keep considerable freedom to use it. The system was created largely to save the many modest structures of the Meiji period and after that fall outside the stricter framework yet still shape the modern Japanese landscape.
This police box was registered in December 2003 under the criterion that it serves as a model of design. Few buildings show the era's playful borrowing from the West so economically: a wooden frame dressed convincingly as masonry, on a structure barely larger than a garden shed.
Details worth slowing down for
The entrance sits on a cut corner. The architect sliced off the right angle so the doorway faces the intersection diagonally, a practical choice that lets a single small room feel open to two streets at once. Above the door hangs a canopy curved like a kamaboko fish cake, a half-cylinder that softens the boxy form.
Look closely at the wall and the imitation gives itself away. The lower band, or dado, is finished in arai-dashi, an exposed-aggregate plaster washed to reveal its grain. Above it run courses of red brick tile with raised joints, while white plaster bands and window frames mimic the cut-stone trim of a true brick building. The copper roof folds partway down into a gentler pitch and rests on slender brackets, so the eaves appear to float.
Inside are just two rooms: a duty room at the front, where the officer kept watch, and a back room used for rest during long shifts.
Planning a visit
Museum Meiji-mura spreads across a hilly site beside Lake Iruka and gathers more than sixty relocated buildings, eleven of them Important Cultural Properties. The headline piece is the central entrance hall of the old Imperial Hotel, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright; within the grounds you can also ride a Meiji-era steam locomotive and a Kyoto streetcar. The police box belongs to the museum's recreated streetscapes and rewards a brief pause rather than a long stay.
The museum lies in Inuyama, reachable by bus from Inuyama Station or by direct bus from Nagoya. Opening hours shift with the season, and adult admission was 2,500 yen as of 2026, so it is worth checking the official site before you go. Inuyama Castle, one of Japan's twelve surviving original keeps and a National Treasure, makes an easy pairing for the same day.
- 📍 Plan Your Visit to Aichi
- Find tours, activities & transport passes near Meiji Village Kyoto Shichijo Police Station
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Q&A
- Can I go inside the police box?
- It is a streetscape exhibit, so you can view the exterior at close range and look into its small interior. As one of the museum's many buildings, it is included with general admission.
- Is this the original building or a replica?
- It is the original 1912 structure, taken apart in Kyoto and rebuilt at the museum in 1969.
- Why does a wooden building look like brick?
- The red surface is tile, not structural brick, applied to a wooden frame so the box would echo the Western brick architecture that once surrounded it in Kyoto.
- What is the difference between a "registered" and a "designated" cultural property?
- Registration is a lighter form of protection introduced in 1996, used mainly for modern buildings. Designation, which produces Important Cultural Properties and National Treasures, is older and more restrictive.
- How much time should I set aside?
- The police box itself takes only a few minutes, but the museum as a whole is large; many visitors spend most of a day and still do not see everything.
Basic Information
| Name | Meiji-mura Kyoto Shichijō Police Box (明治村京都七條巡査派出所) |
|---|---|
| Location | Within Museum Meiji-mura, 1 Uchiyama, Inuyama, Aichi Prefecture |
| Original location | Shichijō, Shimogyō Ward, Kyoto |
| Category | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Buildings) |
| Registered | December 1, 2003 (gazetted December 25, 2003) |
| Built | 1912 (Meiji 45); relocated 1969 (Shōwa 44) |
| Structure | Single-story wood, copper-plate roof; building area approx. 24 m² |
| Count | 1 building |
| Owner | Museum Meiji-mura (Meiji-mura Foundation) |
| Registration No. | 23-0078 |
| Access | Open within the museum; hours vary by season, so check the official site |
References
- National Database of Designated Cultural Properties, Agency for Cultural Affairs
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00003665
- Cultural Heritage Online (Agency for Cultural Affairs)
- https://online.bunka.go.jp/heritages/detail/150275
- Museum Meiji-mura, Official Site
- https://www.meijimura.com/
- Cultural Property Navi Aichi, Aichi Prefecture
- https://www.pref.aichi.jp/kyoiku/bunka/bunkazainavi/yukei/kenzoubutu/kunitouroku/1097.html
Last verified: 2026.06.17