Soja City Machikado Local History Museum (Former Soja Police Station)

A Meiji Police Station with an Octagonal Tower

The Soja City Machikado Local History Museum (Former Soja Police Station) (総社市まちかど郷土館（旧総社警察署）) is a Meiji police station with an octagonal tower of 1910 in Soja, Soja City, Okayama Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) on March 2, 2006 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency records a two-storey timber building with a tiled roof and a building area of 115 square metres; registration number 33-0102.

A Police Station on the Shrine Approach

The Soja City Machikado Local History Museum is the former Soja police station of 1910, on a corner plot whose east side meets the approach to Soja Shrine (Agency for Cultural Affairs). A two-storey timber building seven bays by four and a half under a hipped tiled roof, it has an octagonal tower with a pyramidal roof at the south-east corner.

It stands on brick foundations, is clad in clapboard with exposed pilasters and cross-bracing, and has decoration around its openings (Agency for Cultural Affairs). The Agency values it as a rare modern police station.

Why It Was Registered

The Agency registered it as a model of design.

What to Look For

Look for the octagonal corner tower and the clapboard walls with pilasters and cross-bracing (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

Visiting

It is owned by Soja City (Agency for Cultural Affairs). According to the Okayama Prefecture Tourism Federation, it is open as the Soja City Machikado Local History Museum from 9:00 to 17:00, closed on Mondays (the next day when Monday is a holiday) and from December 29 to January 3, with free admission. It displays material on local traditional industries, mainly of the Meiji era, such as Bitchu patent medicines, Aso cast iron and rush matting.