A Schoolhouse Raised in the Last Year of the War
Toyohashi City Folklore Materials Storage Room Main Building (豊橋市民俗資料収蔵室本棟), formerly the main schoolhouse of Tame Elementary School (旧多米小学校本校舎), is a single-storey timber building at Tame-cho, Toyohashi City, Aichi Prefecture, completed in 1944 and entered on the national register as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (登録有形文化財) on 25 February 2016. The site as a whole is known locally by the nickname Furutame.
The measurements in the Agency for Cultural Affairs record give the building's proportions plainly: 62 metres along its length, 10 metres across, a tiled roof with a floor area of 618 square metres. Standing at the eastern end of the corridor and looking west, you see the same window frame repeated until it disappears into perspective. A corridor runs along the north face, so the classrooms take their light from the south, in the arrangement that Japanese primary schools followed for most of the twentieth century.
School records place its completion in October 1944. That date carries weight. Timber, nails and labour were all under wartime control, and the building went up while the pupils inside it were being taught under a system that had renamed their school a National School (国民学校) three years earlier. Toyohashi itself was heavily bombed in June the following year, though this campus, six kilometres east of the station and set against the Yumihari hills, came through.
The school's own history runs much deeper. A private academy opened in 1873 in the precincts of Hoshuji temple, and by 1901 the school had moved to this plot on the north side of the Tame road, where it stayed for seventy-five years.
Why the Building Was Registered
The registration, number 23-0458 in the 83rd round of listings, was made under the criterion covering structures that contribute to the historic landscape of the country. Two arguments underpin it.
The first is structural. The Agency's description singles out the hōzue (方杖), the angled struts that brace the posts against the beams overhead. Bracing of this type was standard practice in school construction of the period, and because the interiors were never covered over with modern ceilings, the struts remain visible from inside the rooms. Anyone who has read about prewar timber school design in the abstract can here see the detail as built.
The second is scarcity. Toyohashi is a city of some 370,000 people, and these two wings are the only wooden schoolhouses left standing within it. The West Wing of 1954 sits at right angles across the yard, and the Agency treats the pair as a group that holds the shape of the old campus in place.
Registration, it is worth understanding, is a lighter instrument than designation as an Important Cultural Property. It obliges the owner to notify the state before altering the exterior in any substantial way, and it opens the door to technical advice and tax relief. Buildings enter the register in large batches each year, and the system was designed in 1996 precisely for structures of the modern period that were disappearing faster than the designation process could reach them.
Inside: Five Rooms of Working Tools
The Main Building is the exhibition wing. Its rooms, still recognisably classrooms, hold five collections arranged by theme: sericulture together with life under wartime, silk reeling, household goods, fishing gear, and farming and forestry tools.
The silk rooms explain something about Toyohashi that is easy to miss today. Between the Meiji era and the late 1950s the city was known as a town of thread, with farmhouses across the surrounding district raising silkworms and reeling filament for the mills. The wartime room is harder going: a wooden aircraft propeller, an incendiary bomb casing, a gas mask, a child's kimono printed with fighter planes.
The fishing room turns toward Mikawa Bay and the seaweed cultivation that once occupied its shallows. The farming room holds hoes, the toothed sennbakoki threshing comb and the tōmi winnowing fan, alongside saws and shingle tools from the hills behind.
The museum reports roughly 7,000 items in its care with about 1,000 on display, though some published accounts give a lower figure for the total holdings. A former school kitchen with its original cooking equipment also survives on the grounds, which is part of why film and television crews keep returning; a 2006 feature made for the centenary of Toyohashi's municipal status was shot here.
Practical points. The building opens on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays, from 9:30 to 16:00, and closes over the new year period from 29 December to 3 January. No admission charge is listed on the museum's official pages, and visitors consistently report entry as free, but it is sensible to confirm by telephone with the Toyohashi City Museum of Art and History, which administers the site, before making a long trip. From Toyohashi Station take the streetcar to Akaiwaguchi, then the Toyotetsu bus on the Iimura-Iwasaki route, service 61, and get off at Minzoku Shiryo Shuzoshitsu-mae, one minute on foot. There is a car park. Walking the last stretch from Akaiwaguchi takes about twenty-five minutes.
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Q&A
- Can I go inside the Toyohashi City Folklore Materials Storage Room Main Building, and when is it open?
- Yes. The Main Building is the exhibition wing of the folklore collection and is open to visitors on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays from 9:30 to 16:00. It closes from 29 December to 3 January. On weekdays the gate is shut, so plan around the weekend.
- How do I reach the Main Building from Toyohashi Station?
- Take the Toyohashi Railroad streetcar from Toyohashi Ekimae to Akaiwaguchi, then change to the Toyotetsu bus on the Iimura-Iwasaki route, service 61, and alight at Minzoku Shiryo Shuzoshitsu-mae; the entrance is one minute away. The site lies about six kilometres east of the station, and there is parking for those driving.
- What is on display inside the Main Building?
- Five themed rooms occupy the old classrooms: silkworm raising with a section on daily life during the Pacific War, silk reeling, household implements, fishing and seaweed cultivation gear from Mikawa Bay, and farming and forestry tools. Roughly a thousand objects are shown at any time.
- Why was the Main Building registered as a Cultural Property?
- It was registered on 25 February 2016 under the criterion for buildings contributing to the historic landscape. The Agency for Cultural Affairs cites the exposed hōzue bracing struts typical of school construction of the era, and the fact that this wing and the West Wing are the only wooden schoolhouses surviving in Toyohashi.
- Is photography permitted at the Main Building?
- The exterior and grounds are freely photographed, and visitor accounts suggest that interior photography is generally tolerated. No formal policy is published, so ask the attendant on arrival, particularly if you intend to use a tripod or to photograph individual exhibits closely.
Basic Information
| Name | Toyohashi City Folklore Materials Storage Room Main Building (former Tame Elementary School main schoolhouse) / 豊橋市民俗資料収蔵室本棟（旧多米小学校本校舎） |
|---|---|
| Location | 34-1-1 Takinoya, Tame-cho, Toyohashi City, Aichi Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure), registration number 23-0458 |
| Year Designated | Registered 25 February 2016 (83rd round of registrations) |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Timber, single storey, tiled roof; 62 m by 10 m; floor area 618 square metres; built 1944 |
| Owner | Toyohashi City |
| Public Access | Open Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays, 9:30 to 16:00; closed 29 December to 3 January. Administered by the Toyohashi City Museum of Art and History. |
References
- Agency for Cultural Affairs — National Cultural Properties Database: Toyohashi City Folklore Materials Storage Room Main Building
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00010977
- Cultural Heritage Online — Toyohashi City Folklore Materials Storage Room Main Building
- https://online.bunka.go.jp/heritages/detail/221037
- Toyohashi City Museum of Art and History — Folklore Materials Storage Room
- https://toyohashi-bihaku.jp/bihaku06/関連施設紹介/豊橋市民俗資料収蔵室/
- Toyohashi City Museum of Art and History — Guide to the Exhibition Rooms
- https://toyohashi-bihaku.jp/?page_id=297
- Agency for Cultural Affairs — National Cultural Properties Database: West Wing (companion building)
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00010978
Last verified: 2026.08.04