What Is the Suzuzen Store?
The Suzuzen Store (鈴善店舗, Suzuzen Tenpo) is the early Showa-period (1926 to 1945) shop and office of the Suzuzen lacquerware wholesaler, facing north onto a street of the old castle town in Chuo 1-chome, Aizuwakamatsu City, Fukushima Prefecture, and it was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2021.
It is a two-story timber building under a hipped (Yosemune-zukuri) roof of Sangawara-buki pantiles, with a building area of 116 square meters. The ground floor was the shop; upstairs are reception rooms, a Western-style room alongside a pair of connecting tatami rooms. Of the seven registered Suzuzen buildings, this is the one you meet first from the street.
A Timber Shop Dressed as Stone
The walls of the Suzuzen Store are finished in jinzoseki araidashi, a plasterer's technique in which cement mixed with fine stone chips is troweled on and then washed before it sets, so that the stone grains stand out. Horizontal joints are scored across the surface to suggest courses of cut stone. Behind the facade the frame is ordinary timber.
A band of geometric ornament runs beneath the eaves. The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes the exterior as a neat, Western-style design. The hipped tile roof is entirely Japanese; the Western look comes from the wall finish and that strip of decoration alone.
The Agency's database dates the building only to the early Showa period. Aizuwakamatsu City, in its notes on the Suzuzen premises as a city historic landscape building, gives the shop a construction date of 1930.
The Upstairs Reception Rooms
Upstairs, the Suzuzen Store holds its reception rooms: a Western-style room and two tatami rooms opening into each other. A wholesaler received visitors here, one floor above the street. The stair that leads up is not inside the shop itself but in the entrance area of the Nakazashiki, which adjoins the store on the south.
Suzuzen's website says that a tatami room and a reception room on the second floor of its Densho-gura exhibition space, used for shareholders' meetings in the early Showa period, are open to visitors, and another page notes that the upstairs Western room served as a meeting room in the time of the fourth-generation head. Read against the Agency's description, these rooms appear to be the second floor of the Suzuzen Store. The website does not name the building, though, and it calls the Western room a Meiji-era construction, which does not match the Agency's early Showa date.
Visiting the Suzuzen Store
Because the Suzuzen Store stands right on the street, its stone-like walls and the ornamental band are easy to see from the road. For the whole north front, step across to the far side of the street. The scored joints read best in low morning or late-afternoon light.
The premises are open as the Aizu-nuri Densho-kan Suzuzen, and the upstairs tatami room and reception room listed as part of the Densho-gura can be seen during opening hours (checked October 2026). The website does not make clear what the ground floor of the store is used for today. Opening times and directions are on the Suzuzen page.
- 📍 Plan Your Visit to Fukushima
- Find tours, activities & transport passes near Suzuzen Store
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Q&A
- When was the Suzuzen Store built?
- The Agency for Cultural Affairs dates it to the early Showa period (1926 to 1945), and Aizuwakamatsu City gives 1930. It was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2021.
- What is the facade of the Suzuzen Store made of?
- It is timber construction finished in washed artificial stone, with horizontal joints scored to look like cut stone and a band of geometric ornament under the eaves.
- What is on the second floor of the Suzuzen Store?
- Reception rooms: a Western-style room and two connecting tatami rooms. The meeting room and reception room shown as the second floor of the museum's Densho-gura appear to be these rooms.
- Why is the Suzuzen Store a Registered Tangible Cultural Property?
- It was registered as a building that contributes to the historic landscape, a Western-style shop and office facing a street of the old castle town.
- Can visitors go inside the Suzuzen Store?
- The exterior is visible from the street. The premises are open as the Aizu-nuri Densho-kan Suzuzen, and the upstairs tatami room and reception room can be viewed during opening hours.
Basic Information
| Name | Suzuzen Store (鈴善店舗) |
|---|---|
| Location | 138 Chuo 1-chome and other lots, Aizuwakamatsu City, Fukushima Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Building) |
| Year Designated | Registered 2021 |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Building area 116 m² |
| Owner | Not listed (the owner field in the Agency for Cultural Affairs database is blank) |
| Public Access | Exterior visible from the street; the premises are open as the Aizu-nuri Densho-kan Suzuzen |
References
- Database of National Cultural Properties (Agency for Cultural Affairs): Suzuzen Store
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00013923
- Cultural Heritage Online: Suzuzen Store
- https://online.bunka.go.jp/heritages/detail/587103
- Aizuwakamatsu City: Designated Historic Landscape Buildings
- https://www.city.aizuwakamatsu.fukushima.jp/docs/2009020200238/
- Aizu-nuri Densho-kan Suzuzen: Facilities
- https://suzuzen.com/facility/
- Aizu-nuri Densho-kan Suzuzen: Densho-gura
- https://suzuzen.com/facility/densyo/
Last verified: 2026.10.02
