Satake Glass Mixing Factory

Batch Room by Day, Bunkhouse by Night

The Satake Glass Mixing Factory (佐竹ガラス調合場, Satake Garasu Chogojo) is a timber factory building of the early Showa period, single-storey with a partial second floor, in Saiwai 2-chome, Izumi City, Osaka Prefecture, used for blending glass raw materials and entered on the national register as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on April 24, 2001.

It stands on the premises of Satake Glass, a maker of colored craft-glass rods founded in 1927, against the north side of the melting plant, with its ridge running roughly east to west. The roof is a Kirizuma-zukuri gable in Sangawara-buki pantiles, and the building covers 39 square metres.

According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs, the Satake Glass Mixing Factory was where materials were compounded, and when it was first built it also served as living quarters for employees. Measuring out raw materials and sleeping off a shift happened under one roof, a small-scale version of the house-and-factory arrangement that defines the whole site.

Why It Was Registered

The Satake Glass Mixing Factory was listed as a building that contributes to the historic landscape.

It is made up of a west wing and an east wing, and they are dressed differently. The west wing has vertical board paneling at the base, white Shikkui plaster above, and a lower eave wrapped around it. The east wing is clad in Shitami-itabari weatherboarding. One building, two finishes: that switch is its most distinctive feature.

Its position matters too. The color of craft glass depends on the recipe. With the room where batches are blended built right against the room where they are melted, the layout follows the order of production: mix first, then melt.

What to Look For

Start with the east end of the roof, where a raised koshi-yane vent roof rides above the ridge. The melting plant next door has one at the middle of its ridge, so the same venting device appears twice in a row.

On the walls, the west wing's white plaster, board base and wraparound eave sit alongside the east wing's weatherboards. The line where one finish gives way to the other is the key to reading the Satake Glass Mixing Factory.

Part of the building rises to a second floor, which is tempting to connect with its role as staff housing. The official description does not say which part served as quarters, however, so treat that link as a guess.

Visiting the Satake Glass Mixing Factory

The Satake Glass Mixing Factory is part of a working plant, and you cannot walk in freely. No public access to the interior has been announced.

Satake Glass offers factory tours by reservation, but which buildings you see depends on the day's work. If you would like to see the mixing factory's exterior, ask when you book, and check the photography rules at the same time.