Two Storeys Because the Ground Rises
The Second Silkworm Rearing House of Ehime Sanshu Co., Ltd. (愛媛蚕種株式会社第２蚕室, also transliterated Ehime Sanshu Kabushiki-gaisha Dai-ni Sanshitsu) is a two-storey wooden building at 3-70 Kawanoishi, Honai, Yawatahama City, Ehime Prefecture, completed in 1919 (Taisho 8) and entered on Japan's national Register of Tangible Cultural Properties on 7 June 1999. It continues northward from the First Rearing House along a lot that climbs steadily inland, and it is still owned and used by Ehime Sanshu Co., Ltd.
The count of storeys is a consequence of the site rather than a design preference. The Agency for Cultural Affairs states the reason directly: this hall sits on ground one full storey higher than its neighbour, so two floors here reach the same working levels that three floors reach next door. The floor area matches almost exactly, 210 square metres in both cases, and the roof is likewise tiled. Someone standing at the boundary is looking at one continuous set of rearing floors that happens to be housed in buildings of different heights.
Between the two halls a brick firewall rises through the structure. In a timber complex where trays of living stock had to be kept warm through the rearing season, a masonry division of this kind was the sensible precaution: fire in one hall would not automatically take the other, and with it the year's production. The wall is visible where it breaks the roofline, and it is the clearest marker of where the first building ends and the second begins.
A Registration That Records a Growing Business
The Second Rearing House carries registration number 38-0006 and was included in the seventeenth round of the register, with the gazette notice dated 19 July 1999. As with the rest of the group, the criterion applied was contribution to the historic landscape of the country, and the Agency classifies the building under primary industry: one building, timber, two storeys, tiled roof.
Three buildings on this lot were registered on the same day. The office and entrance block of the late Meiji period took 38-0004, the First Rearing House 38-0005, and this hall 38-0006. Their sequence up the slope is a record of expansion. The firm began as Nisshinkan in 1884 under Hyodo Torajiro, a kimono-fabric merchant of the town who moved into silkworm-egg production, and the office came first, in Western dress, at the street corner. The rearing halls followed as demand grew, and accounts of the site describe a good many more sheds behind the three that were eventually registered.
The Agency's own commentary on this building goes beyond its fabric. It notes that the Second Rearing House, together with the first, forms a distinctive scene along the sloping road on the east side, and that the building has value as evidence of how industry developed in this district. That phrasing matters for understanding why an ordinary-looking working shed carries national registration: the case rests less on ornament than on what the buildings show about a local economy.
Reading the Slope from the Road
Walk the east road uphill and the two halls present themselves as a single long wall of timber, broken by the brick division, stepping upward with the gradient. Old glass survives in many of the openings, rippled enough that reflections wander when you move past. Prefectural descriptions of the registered group note the same features across all three buildings: Western truss framing inside Japanese carpentry, and glazing left as it was made.
Kawanoishi rewards a wider look. This was a port that industrialised early and in several directions at once. The prefecture's first bank was founded here in 1878, an ancestor of today's Iyo Bank. Uwa Spinning, later absorbed into Toyobo, became Shikoku's first spinning company in 1887, and when its plant was tested two years later the electric lights it ran were the first in Shikoku. Copper from the Ōmine mine was smelted on the offshore island of Sajima, and the slag was cast into the greenish bricks that still form garden walls and lane boundaries around the town. A silkworm-egg company belongs in that list rather than standing apart from it.
On the practical side: the company is in business and the buildings are in use, so there is no public opening of the interiors, no admission charge and no set visiting hours. What you can do is walk the lane and the east road, where the exteriors and the relationship between the halls are fully visible, and photograph them from the public way. Anything on the premises should be asked about beforehand. The Honai volunteer guide association, based at the Minase community facility at 3-11-1 Kawanoishi, takes advance bookings for guided walks of the district and can put the buildings in context.
Reaching Kawanoishi is straightforward: JR Yawatahama Station on the Yosan Line, then a local bus toward Honai, with the site about ten minutes on foot from the Honai Chosha-mae stop. The former Toyobo red brick warehouse, the Minase Bridge of 1933 and the registered Uchinoura Public Hall of 1937 lie within an easy walk, which makes a half-day circuit of the district a reasonable plan.
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Q&A
- Why does the Second Silkworm Rearing House of Ehime Sanshu have two storeys when the first has three?
- Because it stands on ground one storey higher. The lot climbs inland, so the second hall starts from a raised level and needs only two floors to align with the working levels of its three-storey neighbour. Both buildings have a floor area of 210 square metres.
- What separates the Second Silkworm Rearing House of Ehime Sanshu from the first?
- A brick firewall built up between the two halls. It divides the complex structurally and is the visible seam where one building ends and the next begins.
- When was the Second Silkworm Rearing House of Ehime Sanshu registered as a cultural property?
- Registration took effect on 7 June 1999, with the gazette notice on 19 July 1999, under registration number 38-0006. It was built in 1919 (Taisho 8) and belongs to the seventeenth round of the national register.
- Is the Second Silkworm Rearing House of Ehime Sanshu open to visitors?
- The interior is not open. Ehime Sanshu is an operating company with no admission scheme or published visiting hours. Exteriors can be seen and photographed from the public road on the east side of the site. Guided walks of Kawanoishi can be booked in advance through the Honai volunteer guide association.
- What else is worth seeing near the Second Silkworm Rearing House of Ehime Sanshu?
- The Kawanoishi district holds the red brick warehouse of the former Toyobo spinning mill, the Minase Bridge of 1933, the Western-style former Shiraishi Watarō residence, and the Uchinoura Public Hall of 1937, itself a registered property. Walls built of greenish slag brick from the Sajima smelter run between them.
Basic Information
| Name | Second Silkworm Rearing House, Ehime Sanshu Co., Ltd. (愛媛蚕種株式会社第２蚕室) |
|---|---|
| Location | 3-70 Kawanoishi, Honai-cho, Yawatahama City, Ehime Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure), registration no. 38-0006 |
| Year Designated | Registered 7 June 1999; gazetted 19 July 1999 (17th registration round) |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Timber, two storeys, tiled roof; building area 210 m² |
| Owner | Ehime Sanshu Co., Ltd. |
| Public Access | Interior not open to the public; exterior visible from the road on the east side. District walks by advance booking through the Honai volunteer guide association. |
References
- National Cultural Properties Database, Agency for Cultural Affairs: Second Silkworm Rearing House, Ehime Sanshu Co., Ltd.
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00001147
- National Cultural Properties Database, Agency for Cultural Affairs: First Silkworm Rearing House, Ehime Sanshu Co., Ltd.
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00001146
- National Cultural Properties Database, Agency for Cultural Affairs: Office and Entrance, Ehime Sanshu Co., Ltd.
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00001145
- Honai Townscape Guide: Formation of the Honai Volunteer Guide Association
- https://www.honaimachinami.com/volunteer-guide/
- Yawatahama City: The Meiji Townscape of Honai
- https://www.city.yawatahama.ehime.jp/doc/2014091200025/
Last verified: 2026.08.04