Miyagino Natto Factory Break Room

A Room for the People Who Make the Natto

The Miyagino Natto Factory Break Room (宮城野納豆製造所休憩室, Miyagino Nattō Seizōsho Kyūkeishitsu) is a single-storey timber building from the early Showa period (1926 to 1945) at the Miyagino Natto Factory in Ichomachi, Miyagino-ku, Sendai, built as a rest room for the factory's staff, and was listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on September 10, 2019.

It adjoins the east side of the production building's east wing. The roof is a Kirizuma-zukuri gable in Sangawara-buki pantiles, the walls are Shitami-itabari clapboard, and inside is a single room with a mortar Doma floor and plywood-lined walls and ceiling.

The building is timber-framed with a tiled roof and a building area of 63 square metres. There are two doors, at the south end of the west wall and the west end of the north wall, and glazed windows run along both the east and west sides.

Why It Was Registered

Registered as number 04-171 for its contribution to the historic landscape, it is noted by the Agency for Cultural Affairs for keeping its original form and for showing how a modern food factory was put together.

A factory is more than its machines. The place where workers rest is part of it too, and because such rooms can seem unimportant they tend to be the first to be rebuilt or cleared away. Surviving intact beside the production building, this one makes the working day of an early Showa food plant easier to picture.

Of the seven, the Miyagino Natto Factory Break Room is the only one whose roof the national database lists as tiled in its structure field. Among the metal-roofed factory sheds, the pantiles give it a more domestic air.

What to Look For

The windows are the point. Although the room backs onto the workroom, it is glazed on both long sides, pulling in daylight and cross breezes for people stepping away from the steam and heat.

The doors are placed with the same logic. One sits at the south end of the west wall and the other at the west end of the north wall, both on the side nearest the workroom, so staff could step in between tasks in a few paces.

The floor is beaten mortar, so boots stay on. The plywood linings are plain, but that plainness means little has been altered, and the room still reads much as it was first used.

Visiting

The building is part of a working factory. Its interior is not open, and the walled site cannot be entered.

No notice on photography was found. Directions and contact details for enquiries are on the Miyagino Natto Factory page.