A 1927 Bank on Tsuruga's Old Main Street
The Former Owada Bank Head Office was completed in 1927 on a stone-paved street in central Tsuruga, a port city on the Sea of Japan coast of Fukui Prefecture. Three stories tall with a basement and a small rooftop tower, it was built of steel-framed brick with some reinforced concrete, and its stone-clad exterior has changed little since the day it opened.
The bank that built it took its name from Owada Shoshichi, a Tsuruga merchant who founded the firm in 1892. As Tsuruga was growing into one of Japan's gateways to the Asian mainland, the bank prospered, and Shoshichi commissioned a head office that looked the part. When the building was finished, residents nicknamed it the Matenkaku, a playful word for a skyscraper, since nothing else in town rose so confidently above the rooftops.
Today the same building serves as the Tsuruga Municipal Museum. Visitors can walk through the old banking hall, climb the marble staircase, and step inside the vault.
From Owada Shoshichi to the City Museum
Owada Shoshichi, the second to hold that name, was born in Tsuruga in 1857, the youngest son of a druggist. He was a sickly child who loved arithmetic and came late to schooling. After marrying into the Owada family in 1878 and taking the family name in 1887, he opened the Owada Bank as a sole proprietorship in 1892.
The bank lent at the lower rates common around Osaka rather than the higher rates then usual in the Hokuriku region, treated customers with the manners of a merchant house, and was among the first in the area to install a telephone. It opened branches in Osaka, Takefu, and Kanazawa, became a joint-stock company in 1918, and kept growing.
This 1927 building was the bank's final head office. After Owada Bank was absorbed in 1945, the premises served as a branch of Sanwa Bank and later of Fukui Bank. The building came through the wartime air raids on Tsuruga and was briefly requisitioned by occupation forces. In 1977 it was donated to the city, which opened it as a folk museum the following year and renamed it the Tsuruga Municipal Museum in 1993.
By the early 2000s the structure was showing its age. A full restoration ran from 2012 to 2015 and returned the interior to something close to its original appearance. National recognition followed in February 2017, when the building was designated an Important Cultural Property.
Why the Building Was Designated
The design is credited to Nagase Kyozo, who headed the building-and-repairs section at Kyoto Imperial University, working through the Yoshida-Nagase architectural office. Owada Shoshichi asked for more than a place to count money. He wanted the bank to serve the town, so the program set a dining room and an assembly hall alongside the tellers' counters.
The Agency for Cultural Affairs singled out how the architect handled that mix. The interior and exterior are mostly geometric in feeling, but the ground-floor walls and the customer area borrow classical motifs that give the building the gravity expected of a bank, while the canopy over the entrance carries a design of its own. Within a fairly small footprint the plan fits several entrances, staircases, and an elevator so that banking and public use could run side by side. As a regional bank built with its community in mind, it was judged to have high value. The designation also covers twenty-three of the original architectural drawings.
What to Look For Inside
The ground floor is the most ornate part of the building. Doric pilasters, round and square, line the front, and the entrance canopy is decorated in a style hard to file under any one school. Inside the old banking hall, freestanding columns with a slight entasis carry Ionic and Corinthian capitals, and the plaster ceiling is worked with ornament around each light fitting.
Walk toward the west side and the staircase turns to marble. The building had an elevator from the day it opened, said to be the first in the Hokuriku region, and the heavy steel door of the vault still swings on its hinges. The basement once held a restaurant; the third floor keeps the assembly hall where townspeople gathered.
The museum uses the three floors for displays on Tsuruga's port history, on the wider history of the area, and on its collection of Japanese art. The building itself rewards a slow look as much as the exhibits do.
Visiting and Nearby
The museum opens from 9:00 to 17:00, with last entry at 16:30, and closes on Mondays (open when Monday is a holiday, with the following weekday closed) and over the New Year period. Admission is 300 yen for adults, with free entry for high-school students and younger. There is no dedicated parking.
From JR Tsuruga Station the building is about a 25-minute walk, or a short ride on the local community bus; by car it is roughly ten minutes from the Tsuruga interchange.
Next door, barely thirty meters away, the Minato Tsuruga Sansha Kaikan displays the city's festival floats, and its annex occupies the bank's earlier wooden head office of 1901. The sauce-cutlet restaurant Europe-ken sits a two-minute walk away. Kehi Jingu, one of the region's major shrines, and the red-brick warehouses near the old port both fit easily into a half-day in town.
- 📍 Plan Your Visit to Fukui
- Find tours, activities & transport passes near Former Owada Bank Main Branch
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Q&A
- Can I go inside the building?
- Yes. The building houses the Tsuruga Municipal Museum, and the old banking hall, vault, marble staircase, and assembly hall are all accessible during museum hours.
- What does the nickname "Matenkaku" mean?
- It is a Japanese word for a skyscraper. At three stories the building was unusually tall for Tsuruga in 1927, and residents used the name half in admiration, half in jest.
- Who designed it?
- Nagase Kyozo, head of the building section at Kyoto Imperial University, working through the Yoshida-Nagase office. Shimizu-gumi, now Shimizu Corporation, built it from its Kyoto branch.
- How is it different from the "Owada Bank Head Office" listed separately?
- The bank's first head office, a wooden building of 1901, still stands nearby and is a Registered Tangible Cultural Property now used as the festival-float hall's annex. The 1927 stone building is the later, final head office and the Important Cultural Property.
- How long should I allow for a visit?
- About an hour is comfortable for the building and its displays. Allow more if you plan to combine it with the float hall next door or a walk to Kehi Jingu.
Basic Information
| Name | Former Owada Bank Head Office Main Building |
|---|---|
| Location | 7-8 Aioi-cho, Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture |
| Designation | Important Cultural Property (Building); designated 23 February 2017 |
| Completed | 1927 (work begun 1925) |
| Structure | Steel-framed brick with partial reinforced concrete; three stories above ground, one below, with rooftop tower; footprint about 338 sq m, total floor area about 1,418 sq m; 1 building (with 23 architectural drawings) |
| Designer / Builder | Nagase Kyozo (Yoshida-Nagase office) / Shimizu-gumi, Kyoto branch |
| Owner | Tsuruga City |
| Current use | Tsuruga Municipal Museum (open to the public) |
References
- Former Owada Bank Head Office Main Building - Cultural Heritage Online (NII)
- https://bunka.nii.ac.jp/heritages/detail/274902
- Tsuruga Municipal Museum - About the Important Cultural Property
- https://tsuruga-municipal-museum.jp/introduction/tsuruga/
- Tsuruga Municipal Museum - Visitor Information
- https://tsuruga-municipal-museum.jp/guide/annai/
- Tsuruga City - Owada Bank Head Office
- https://www.city.tsuruga.lg.jp/mobile/kanko_annai/kanko_annai/owadaginko_1-2.html
- Fukui.com - Tsuruga Municipal Museum
- https://www.fuku-e.com/spot/detail_1187.html
Last verified: 2026.06.04