Shinyosha Paper Mill Boiler and Former Roller Room Building

What Is the Shinyosha Paper Mill Boiler and Former Roller Room Building?

The Shinyosha Paper Mill Boiler and Former Roller Room Building (信洋舎製紙所ボイラー及び旧ロール場棟, Shin'yōsha Seishijo Boirā oyobi Kyū-rōruba-tō) is a two-storey timber workshop in Sadatomo-cho, Echizen City, Fukui Prefecture, built in the mid-Meiji period (1883–1897) and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2020.

The ground floor houses the boiler room. The upper floor was the roller room, where finished sheets were glazed between rollers. The building area is 122 m².

The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes the Shinyosha Paper Mill Boiler and Former Roller Room Building as running north to south, joined to the Former Rest Area and Drying Room Building on its east and to the Former Fiber Cleaning and Finishing Building on its north. It calls the structure plain.

Why the Boiler and Roller Room Building Was Registered

The Shinyosha Paper Mill Boiler and Former Roller Room Building was registered for contributing to the historic landscape of the country. The Agency points to the Meiji-era glazing roller equipment that survives inside and describes the building as a record of papermaking's move from handcraft toward modern production.

Of the mill's four buildings, this is the one that held a heat source and machinery. A boiler and a roller press were set into a workshop where paper was otherwise made by hand, and the Shinyosha Paper Mill Boiler and Former Roller Room Building preserves that stage in built form: a Meiji mill adopting machines without giving up handwork.

According to the Fukui Prefecture Washi Industry Cooperative, the mill's first proprietor produced kyokushi, a paper made from mitsumata fiber. The sources consulted do not say which papers were glazed in this roller room.

What to Look For

The highlight is the Meiji-era glazing roller equipment on the upper floor of the Shinyosha Paper Mill Boiler and Former Roller Room Building. The mill describes its Meiji buildings and machinery as surviving largely intact, though it does not name the machines it means.

Read the Agency's four descriptions side by side and a difference appears. Glass windows feature in the other three; here the word is simply plain. Light mattered for forming and drying paper. A room built around a boiler and a press had other priorities, and the building reflects that.

As the word former in the name indicates, the roller room is no longer used for glazing. The sources do not say if the boiler room is still in service, nor if the rollers could still turn.

Visiting the Boiler and Roller Room Building

The Shinyosha Paper Mill Boiler and Former Roller Room Building stands inside the working mill, and its interior is not open to the public. To ask about seeing the glazing equipment, contact the mill by email in advance. Workshop tours have run during the RENEW open-factory event, but no source says the boiler and roller building was on the route.

If you are shown inside, do not touch the old machinery, and ask before taking photographs. Directions to the mill are on the Shinyosha Paper Mill page.