Former Aikawa Tax Office

What the Former Aikawa Tax Office Is

The Former Aikawa Tax Office (旧相川税務署, Kyū Aikawa Zeimusho) is a 1931 tax office complex at the foot of the Nagasaka slope in Aikawa, Sado City, Niigata Prefecture, whose main building, archives, gate and side wall, and stonework were registered together as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties in 2009. Sado City owns the site today.

Tax collection in Aikawa goes back to 1889, when Niigata Prefecture opened a revenue branch office in the Shimokyomachi district of town. It was reorganized as a direct-tax sub-office the following year and moved to the present plot on Nagasaka in 1891; the name Aikawa Tax Office dates from 1896.

The buildings you see now replaced that earlier office in 1931. The main building gained an extension in 1949, and the complex kept working as a tax office until 1970.

Aikawa itself grew up as the administrative town of the Sado gold and silver mines, and the tax office sits in the old upper part of that town, on the route that once led to the mine administration.

How the Four Structures Sit on the Nagasaka Slope

Nagasaka is the lane that climbs to the site of the Sado Magistrate's Office, the Edo-period seat of mine administration, which lies roughly 200 meters uphill from the Former Aikawa Tax Office. Walking the slope, you pass from a shogunate compound to a Showa-era government office in a few minutes.

The layout is compact. The gate and its low side wall face the lane, and behind them the two-story wooden main building shows its symmetrical front. A two-story archive is tucked behind the main building and linked to it by a corridor. The stonework runs 9.8 meters down the lane from the gate, turns at the southwest corner, and continues 7.6 meters east along the neighboring plot.

Sado City counts the ensemble as three buildings and one gate structure. Office, record store, gate and boundary masonry all survive on one plot, and each was registered in its own right.

The Former Aikawa Tax Office as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property

All four parts of the Former Aikawa Tax Office were entered on the register of Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on August 7, 2009, under consecutive numbers 15-0319 to 15-0322. Each qualified under the same criterion: a structure that contributes to the historic landscape of the country.

• Former Aikawa Tax Office Main Building: two-story timber building with a footprint of 277 square meters, built in 1931 and extended in 1949
• Former Aikawa Tax Office Archives: two-story timber record store with a footprint of 29 square meters, built around 1931
• Former Aikawa Tax Office Gate and Side Wall: reinforced concrete, with a 3.3-meter gate opening and 4.0 meters of side wall
• Former Aikawa Tax Office Stonework: stone masonry running 17 meters in total

Sado City describes the main building as a landmark of central Aikawa, and it credits the survival of the archives, gate, side wall and stonework as much as the office itself. Seen that way, the listing is less about one handsome facade than about an early-Showa provincial tax office that survives with its whole plot intact.

Visiting the Former Aikawa Tax Office

Sado City's heritage pages give no information on interior openings or visitor admission for the Former Aikawa Tax Office, so plan on viewing the exterior from Nagasaka. There is no guidance about entering the grounds either, and the lane itself gives a clear view of the front. For questions about access or filming, the city's World Heritage Division, which handles cultural properties, can be reached at 0259-74-2215.

Most visitors arrive on Sado at Ryotsu Port. From there, the Niigata Kotsu Sado Honsen bus line bound for Aikawa takes about 1 hour to the Kirarium Sado stop. The tax office is about 500 meters north of that stop in a straight line; allow around 10 minutes on foot, part of it uphill. If you visit the Sado Magistrate's Office site first, simply walk about 200 meters down Nagasaka and you arrive at the gate.

By car, Sado City gives about 50 minutes from Ryotsu Port to the magistrate's office site, and the tax office just below it takes about the same. No visitor parking is announced for the tax office itself, so plan to park elsewhere and explore Nagasaka on foot.