Shinyosha Paper Mill Former Rest Area and Drying Room Building

What Is the Shinyosha Paper Mill Former Rest Area and Drying Room Building?

The Shinyosha Paper Mill Former Rest Area and Drying Room Building (信洋舎製紙所旧休憩場及び張場棟, Shin'yōsha Seishijo Kyū-kyūkeiba oyobi Hariba-tō) is a two-storey timber workshop in Sadatomo-cho, Echizen City, Fukui Prefecture, built in 1886 and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2020.

Its upper floor is the hariba, where freshly formed sheets are dried; the ground floor once served as the workers' rest area. With a building area of just 51 m², it is the smallest of the mill's four buildings.

According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs, the Shinyosha Paper Mill Former Rest Area and Drying Room Building runs east to west, touching the Papermaking Building on its north side and the Boiler and Former Roller Room Building on its west. It sits, in other words, between the room where paper is formed and the room where it was glazed.

Why the Drying Room Building Was Registered

The Shinyosha Paper Mill Former Rest Area and Drying Room Building was registered for contributing to the historic landscape of the country. The 2020 registration report describes Shinyosha as a paper works established in 1886, and this building is dated to that same year, making it the oldest of the four buildings with a specific date.

The mill itself gives 1888 as its founding year, so the sources disagree by two years. Either way, this building belongs to the earliest phase of the factory.

Its job is drying. A newly formed sheet is heavy with water and cannot be handled as paper until it has dried. Placing the drying room between the vat room and the glazing room is part of what the report means when it says the buildings stand in the order of the work.

What to Look For

The Agency draws attention to the two ways of drying under one roof. A hariba is where wet sheets are brushed onto drying boards, but the Shinyosha Paper Mill Former Rest Area and Drying Room Building also has a separate drying room fitted with a mechanical dryer. Board drying, the traditional method, and machine drying exist side by side.

On the upper floor, large glass windows let in light and air. In a room full of drying boards, both make a real difference to how evenly and how quickly the paper dries, and the size of the windows on this small building reflects that.

The former rest area on the ground floor is a quieter detail: a place to pause, built into a row of working sheds. The sources consulted do not say how the ground floor is used today.

Visiting the Drying Room Building

The Shinyosha Paper Mill Former Rest Area and Drying Room Building is part of the working mill, and its interior is not open to the public. To ask about seeing the drying room, contact the mill by email in advance. Workshop tours have been offered during the RENEW event, though there is no record of visitors being taken up to the drying floor.

Paper on the drying boards is easily marked, so do not touch boards or sheets, and ask before taking photographs. Directions to the mill are on the Shinyosha Paper Mill page.