Shoko Club Restaurant Building

An 1890 Restaurant in Kumamoto's Old Town

The Shoko Club Restaurant Building (商工クラブ店舗) is a two-storey timber restaurant building of 1890 in Nishiamidaji-machi, Chuo Ward, Kumamoto City, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) on March 6, 2024. It stands in the old town south-west of Kumamoto Castle (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency for Cultural Affairs records it as a two-storey timber building with a tiled roof and a building area of 266 square metres, renovated in 2020; registration number 43-0201, with no owner listed.

A Family of Cooks and the Shoko Club

According to the Shoko Club website, the building is the residence of the Ryoriya family, hereditary cooks whose ancestor followed Hosokawa Tadatoshi from Kokura when he moved to Higo and served the Hosokawa lords thereafter. In the Meiji era the family opened the Shoko Club as a restaurant and inn, a favourite setting for weddings and banquets, until it closed in 1973.

The website says that the building was later restored by Kumamoto craftsmen, designated a historic townscape building by Kumamoto City, and reopened in June 2021 as the Shoko Club, home to several restaurants, together with the inn Ryoriya-tei Tsuzura.

Why It Was Registered

The Shoko Club Restaurant Building was registered as a building that contributes to the historic landscape of the country. The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes it as a restaurant that conveys the bustle of the Kumamoto castle town in the modern era.

What to Look For

The Shoko Club Restaurant Building faces north onto the street, a two-storey east-west block, gabled (Kirizuma-zukuri) with pantiles and its entrance on the long side, with a wing extending to the south-east (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The ground floor has projecting and flush lattices and a hip-and-gable entrance porch towards the east; upstairs a row of windows runs behind a handrail under a pent roof (Agency for Cultural Affairs). From the street, the lattices below and the railed windows above make a classic restaurant front.

Visiting the Shoko Club

The Shoko Club Restaurant Building operates as restaurants and an inn, so its interior is seen as a guest (Shoko Club). The exterior can be seen from the street. The address is 6 Nishiamidaji-machi, Chuo Ward, Kumamoto.