Hisa Kinzoku Kogyo Former Warehouse

Hisa Kinzoku Kogyo Former Warehouse: Where the Raw Metal Was Kept

The Hisa Kinzoku Kogyo Former Warehouse (久金属工業旧倉庫, Hisa Kinzoku Kōgyō Kyū Sōko) is a timber raw-materials store at a bottle-cap maker's head-office factory in Kitatsumori, Nishinari Ward, Osaka City, built around 1934, altered around 1937 and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on February 4, 2021.

It stands east of the office, on the far side of the main gate. It measures 19 by 11 meters, with a building area of 207 square meters, and is partly two stories. The main roof is a sheet-iron gable, and a one-story section on the south carries a raised ventilating roof along its ridge.

The company says it went on storing raw materials until the late 1980s.

Why the Former Warehouse Was Registered

The Hisa Kinzoku Kogyo Former Warehouse was registered for contributing to the historic landscape. The company adds that it is regarded as a rare survivor among large warehouses of the early Showa period.

A cap factory needed stocks of sheet metal and other materials close at hand. Putting a large store right beside the main gate, near the street, reads as a layout planned around deliveries.

The sources disagree on the date. The Agency for Cultural Affairs has it built around 1934 and altered around 1937, while the company website gives 1937. This article follows the Agency.

What to Look For: A Clapboard South Wall and Built-In Shelving

The south wall is clapboard with a row of sliding windows under small canopies, and the Agency notes that it matches the quality control office. The company describes a stone-faced skirting with Shikkui plaster above.

The east wall had for years been sheathed in corrugated iron. Like the first factory, it has been restored to something close to its original appearance.

Inside, wooden shelving is built in along the walls. The roof space is framed as a Wagoya, the traditional Japanese system of short posts standing on heavy beams.

Visiting the Former Warehouse

The Hisa Kinzoku Kogyo Former Warehouse is on the grounds of a working factory, and its interior is normally closed. The shelving and roof framing can be seen only when an open-house tour includes the building.

Because it faces the office across the main gate, anyone entering on an open day sees the two side by side. The office is dressed in tile; the warehouse makes do with boards and plaster, a neat lesson in how buildings of the same years were given different faces for different jobs.