Northern Culture Museum Niigata Annex Brick Wall

A 37-Metre Wall on the Southeast Side

The Northern Culture Museum Niigata Annex Brick Wall (北方文化博物館新潟分館煉瓦塀) in Minamihamadori, Chuo Ward, Niigata City, is a brick boundary wall built in 1915 and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 28 April 2000.

The Northern Culture Museum Niigata Annex Brick Wall encloses the southeastern part of the estate. It stands about 3 metres high and runs for 37 metres. Together with the front gate and the storehouse of the same year, it belongs to the moment when the Ito family secured the edges of its new villa.

Brick Outside, Mortar Inside

The Northern Culture Museum Niigata Annex Brick Wall was registered as a model of good design. On the outside the brickwork is left exposed.

The inner face is another matter. It is braced with buttress-like projections and pilasters, rendered all over in mortar, and shaped between the pilasters into a row of shallow arches.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs sees in the wall a moment of transition from brick to concrete construction. Its two contrasting faces are the key to that reading.

Compare the Two Faces

Do not stop at one side of the Northern Culture Museum Niigata Annex Brick Wall. Outside, look at the coursing of the bricks and the joints; inside, at the evenly spaced pilasters and the flattened arches strung between them.

The projections on the inner side are there to keep a wall about 3 metres high and 37 metres long standing. Rather than relying on thickness alone, it is propped from within.

The Western-style building on the same estate, put up around 1928, has mortar-rendered walls too. Set beside the mortar on the inner face of this 1915 wall, it shows the same material returning to the estate some 13 years later.

Visiting the Brick Wall

The Northern Culture Museum Niigata Annex Brick Wall is on the southeast side of the estate, the same side as the Western-style building. The pilasters and arches of the inner face can be seen from inside the grounds on opening days.

Where the outer brick face can be viewed from depends on the surroundings, so check on site. Ask at reception before taking photographs within the grounds.