Uno Pharmacy

One Shop Building, a Registered Tangible Cultural Property since 2000

Uno Pharmacy (宇野薬局, Uno Yakkyoku) stands at 2-3-3 Tokuicho, Chuo Ward, Osaka City, Osaka Prefecture, a Showa-period building entered on the register of tangible cultural properties on 28 April 2000. It is a registered property rather than a designated one.

The quantity is one building.

The structure is timber, three-storeyed, tiled, with a floor area of 58 square metres. The date field reads early Showa and the year field 1933.

A Tiled Front on a Timber Building

The frame of the building and the face it shows the street are of different materials.

The Agency records that it stands on a corner of a main street facing west: a three-storeyed timber building in the signboard style, faced in tile.

The signboard style gives a timber shop a flat front wall finished in tile, copper sheet or the like, so that the whole front reads like a sign.

The frame is of timber; only the face toward the street is clad in tile.

The former bank branch at Neu sets Western architectural parts across its front, giant pilasters and a pediment: the Western manner shown by form.

Here it is shown by the material of a flat wall. In both, the building's face is gathered onto the one front.

Roof Tiles Set on Top of the Parapet

Tiles meant for roofing become ornament on a wall.

The Agency records the horizontal lines of the eaves at each floor, a round window in the side of the third floor, and green Spanish-style tiles set on the parapet, as showing design trends of the early Showa period.

A parapet is a low wall along the edge of a roof. Spanish-style tiles are half-cylinders laid alternately up and down. Here they are set not on a roof but on the top of a wall.

At the former Soka school, the parapet itself is raised to a gable at the centre of front and back: the wall's own shape is the ornament.

Here another material is placed on top of the wall. Its green edges the top of the tiled front.

The round window is in the side of the third floor. Standing on a corner, the building shows its side to the street as well as its front.

The Names of the Designer and the Builder Survive

Both those who shaped the building are named in the record.

The Agency records that it is said to have been designed by an architectural office in Osaka and built by a carpenter from the Nishinari district.

Those who drew it and those who raised it are set down separately. The builder's name comes with the name of his district.

At the Yoshida main house, a ridge tablet names the master carpenter: only the builder's name survives there.

Here both designer and builder are named. In both cases the account is given as what is said.

By the early Showa years, an architectural office could design even a town shop.

Visiting

The building stands at 2-3-3 Tokuicho, Chuo Ward, Osaka City, on a corner of the main street, facing west.

It is a three-storeyed timber building with a floor area of 58 square metres.

A regional heritage guide describes it as an early Showa shop and dwelling, and notes that though the area escaped war damage, this is now the only building of the kind left standing.

In a streetscape spared by the war, one building alone has outlasted the rebuilding that followed.

No owner is recorded, and trading hours and any viewing follow the owner's arrangements. Check before travelling.