A Forestry Office That Crossed the Prefecture
The former Masukawa Forestry Office, now the Shōwa Exhibition Hall (旧増川営林署庁舎（展示館しょうわ）, Kyū-Masukawa Eirinsho Chōsha, also written Kyu-Masukawa Eirinsyo), is a timber Western-style government building of 1937 standing in the Namioka district of Aomori City, Aomori Prefecture, and registered as a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 31 October 2022.
It did not start out here. The office was built at Masukawa, on the Tsugaru Strait coast in what is now Sotogahama Town, roughly seventy kilometres north of its present address. Its front faced east, toward the water. Forestry offices of this period were the administrative front line of the state forests that covered the Tsugaru peninsula, and the building housed a single large clerical room where felling permits, timber tallies and district maps were handled.
An extension went up around 1962. Then, in 2008, the whole structure was taken down and rebuilt in Namioka, an apple-growing district on the road between Aomori and Hirosaki. Buildings that move rarely survive the journey with their character intact. This one did, and the Agency for Cultural Affairs register records it under the criterion of being a model of design, registration number 02-0105.
One point deserves care. The register's structural entry describes a two-storey timber building with a sheet-iron roof and a footprint of 170 square metres, while the accompanying commentary describes a single-storey building. The likeliest reading is that the commentary preserves the original 1937 form and the structural entry records the building as it stands after the 1962 work, though the register itself does not say so.
Scratch Tile and a Half-Round Window
Look at the gable end. The plastered wall carries a semicircular arched window, and around that arch runs a border of scratch tile, the rough-combed facing brick that Japanese architects of the 1920s and 1930s used when they wanted a surface with grain to it. Scratch tile on a rural forestry office is not what you expect. It belongs to the vocabulary of city banks and university halls.
The rest of the exterior is plainer and better for it: horizontal weatherboarding, a run of tall narrow windows, a gabled roof in metal sheet. The entrance block steps forward from the north end of the front elevation and carries its own small gabled porch, so that the façade reads as a long low body with one raised note near the corner. That asymmetry is what keeps the building from looking like a barracks.
Timber offices of this kind went up in their hundreds across northern Japan and almost all of them have gone. Registration recognised the surviving example not as a monument but as a specimen of a vanished building type, put up by a regional bureau with more care for proportion and detail than the job strictly required.
The present exterior is painted a blue-green that carries a long way across the surrounding orchards.
Radios From 1936, Still Switched On
The building is open, which makes it unusual among registered properties in Aomori. The ground floor is a café; the upper floor is the exhibition room that gives the place its present name. Both are run by a former electrical goods retailer, Fukushi Mitsuharu, who spent some thirty-five years repairing and collecting the radios, fans, televisions and household appliances now filling the rooms. A number of them still work. Regional television reporting in 2026 featured a radio of about 1936 that continues to receive broadcasts, and a 1968 Subaru 360 parked outside.
Visitors have reported an admission charge of ¥300 for adults and ¥100 for children, waived for café customers, with opening hours of 10:00 to 17:00 and closure on Wednesdays and Thursdays. These figures come from visitor accounts rather than an official notice, so a telephone call before setting out is sensible. Photography inside has been permitted in published accounts, but ask at the counter.
Getting there is easiest by car. The hall stands in the Nojiri area of Megasawa, the same locality as the Michi-no-Eki Namioka "Apple Hill" roadside station on National Route 7, which the prefecture puts at about five minutes' drive from JR Namioka Station on the Ōu Line and eight minutes from the Namioka interchange of the Tōhoku Expressway. Aomori and Hirosaki are each within about half an hour.
Combining the visit with Namioka Castle, a National Historic Site, and the adjacent Aomori City Museum of Middle Ages makes a reasonable half day in the district.
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Q&A
- Can the former Masukawa Forestry Office (Shōwa Exhibition Hall) be visited, and what does it cost?
- Yes. It operates as a café on the ground floor and an exhibition room upstairs. Visitor reports give admission as ¥300 for adults and ¥100 for children, free for café customers, with hours of 10:00 to 17:00 and closure on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Because these details are not published on an official page, confirm by telephone before travelling.
- Where was the former Masukawa Forestry Office originally built, and when was it moved?
- It was built in 1937 at Masukawa in present-day Sotogahama Town, facing east toward the Tsugaru Strait. It was extended around 1962 and relocated to Namioka in Aomori City in 2008.
- Why was the former Masukawa Forestry Office registered as a cultural property?
- It was registered on 31 October 2022 under the criterion of being a model of design. The register singles out the weatherboarded walls with their run of tall windows and the plastered gable wall with a semicircular arched window edged in scratch tile.
- Is the former Masukawa Forestry Office one storey or two?
- The register is internally inconsistent. Its structural field records a two-storey timber building of 170 square metres, while its commentary describes a single-storey one. Today the ground floor holds a café and the upper floor an exhibition room, so the building as it stands has two usable levels.
- How do I reach the Shōwa Exhibition Hall from Aomori or Hirosaki?
- Driving is the practical option. The hall is in the Nojiri area of Megasawa in Namioka, on the National Route 7 corridor roughly midway between the two cities, and each is about thirty minutes away by car. JR Namioka Station on the Ōu Line is the nearest railway station.
- What is on display inside the Shōwa Exhibition Hall?
- Household goods of the Shōwa era assembled over roughly thirty-five years by the owner, a former electrical goods retailer: radios, electric fans, televisions and similar appliances, together with old banknotes, coins and film posters along the staircase. Several of the appliances have been repaired to working order.
Basic Information
| Name | Former Masukawa Forestry Office (Shōwa Exhibition Hall) / 旧増川営林署庁舎（展示館しょうわ） |
|---|---|
| Location | 14-134 Nojiri, Megasawa, Namioka, Aomori City, Aomori Prefecture |
| Designation | National Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure), registration number 02-0105; criterion: a model of design |
| Year Designated | Registered and gazetted 31 October 2022 |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Timber, two storeys, sheet-iron roof, building area 170 m² (register); the register's commentary describes the building as single-storey |
| Owner | Not recorded in the national register |
| Public Access | Open as a café and exhibition hall; admission reported at ¥300 adults / ¥100 children, waived for café customers; hours reported as 10:00 to 17:00, closed Wednesdays and Thursdays. Confirm before visiting. |
| Built | 1937; extended c.1962; relocated to the present site 2008 |
References
- National Cultural Properties Database, Agency for Cultural Affairs — Former Masukawa Forestry Office (Shōwa Exhibition Hall)
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00014309
- Cultural Heritage Online — Former Masukawa Forestry Office (Shōwa Exhibition Hall)
- https://online.bunka.go.jp/heritages/detail/546078
- Aomori Prefectural Board of Education — Registered Tangible Cultural Properties
- https://www.pref.aomori.lg.jp/soshiki/kyoiku/e-bunka/torokuyukei_102.html
- Aomori City — Nationally Designated and Registered Cultural Properties
- https://www.city.aomori.aomori.jp/bunka_sports_kankou/bunka_geijutsu/1005024/1005036/1005037/1005038.html
- Aomori Prefecture Tourism Information — Michi-no-Eki Namioka "Apple Hill" (access reference)
- https://aomori-tourism.com/spot/detail_318.html
Last verified: 2026.08.14