A Bank's Rice Store on the Minatogawa
The Former Rush Products Warehouse (旧藺製品倉庫, Kyū I-seihin Sōko) is an earthen-walled storehouse on the left bank of the Minatogawa river in Asahihonmachi, Himi City, Toyama Prefecture, built in the late Taisho period between 1919 and 1926 and entered on Japan's register of Tangible Cultural Properties as a building on 14 October 2021.
The footprint covers 192 square metres. Its walls use dozō construction, in which thick mud is packed over a timber frame and finished with plaster, the method Japanese merchants relied on to keep fire and damp away from stored goods. The ridge runs east to west, and the doorway sits on the long south side rather than at either gable end, an arrangement Japanese carpentry calls hirairi. Above it all sits a gabled roof of sangawara pantiles.
Rush was not what the building first held. Around 1920 the old Himi Bank, one of the institutions that eventually merged into today's Hokuriku Bank, put up this warehouse together with the much larger one immediately to its south, storing rice and farm produce for its lending business. Townspeople knew the pair as the Asahi Warehouses.
Ownership shifted after the war. Commercial associations took the buildings over, and by the mid-1950s the Himi Rush Products Federation was running the warehouse as a collection point for goza floor mats and tatami omote, the woven rush facing that covers a tatami mat. Rush, called igusa in Japanese, had been farmed and worked in the Himi district since the Edo period, and the trade held on locally until roughly 1965.
Why the Riverbank Earned the Registration
Japan runs two parallel systems for old buildings. Designation, which produces National Treasures and Important Cultural Properties, is selective and imposes heavy obligations. Registration, created in 1996, is deliberately lighter: it flags a building as worth keeping and nudges the owner toward continued use rather than freezing it. Three criteria govern registration, and this warehouse qualified under the first, contribution to the historic landscape of the country.
The Agency for Cultural Affairs registered it on the same day as two neighbours, the city-owned Minatogawa Warehouse just to the south and the Former Rush Products Workshop to the west. Reading the three together is the point. They were also the first buildings anywhere in Himi City to reach the register, which explains the local attention the announcement drew in 2021.
Evidence for the landscape argument sits at the east end of the south wall, where an opening was cut for hauling cargo up from the water. Himi's merchants in the early modern period laid out their properties along the Minatogawa precisely because boats could reach them. A surviving photograph from the warehouse's banking years catches loads moving straight from the landing stage into the building.
That directness is gone. The river carries less water than it did, engineering works have reshaped its banks, and a road now runs between the water and the warehouse wall. The hoisting opening survives with nothing left to hoist from, which is exactly the kind of trace registration is designed to protect.
What to Look For, and What You Can Currently See
Step back on the riverside path and the east elevation reads differently from the rest. It is clad in horizontal weatherboarding rather than left as bare plaster. Rain blowing off the water would have chewed through a plastered face within a few winters, so the carpenters gave the exposed side a sacrificial skin. On the north wall, windows sit inside raised frames.
The interior, when it can be entered, holds one surprise. The register lists the structure as single-storey, while the Agency's own description records it as originally two. The upper floor is gone, leaving a single tall volume in which free-standing posts carry the ridge. The roof frame stands on those posts rather than on the earthen walls, so the heavy mud shell can settle on its own timetable without dragging the roof out of true.
Then came the first day of 2024.
The Noto Peninsula earthquake shook Himi at a Japanese seismic intensity of 5-plus. Stones at the old boat landing split, cracks opened in the foundations, mud fell from the walls of both the warehouse and its tomae entrance vestibule, and the roof structure was damaged. Inspectors from the Agency for Cultural Affairs examined the site that February, and the owners showed the damage to reporters at the end of the month. Repair and conversion have been pursued through public fundraising since.
Practical points for anyone planning a visit. The warehouse stands roughly 700 metres from JR Himi Station, about a ten-minute walk, at the northern end of the Minatogawa Riverwalk promenade that runs through the centre of town. There is no admission gate and no fee, because the interior has not been open since the earthquake; the exterior is what you get, and photographing it from the public road raises no objection. Anyone hoping to see inside should write ahead to on the Minatogawa, the general incorporated association that owns the building, or ask at the Himi City Museum, rather than turning up and hoping.
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Q&A
- Can visitors go inside the Former Rush Products Warehouse in Himi?
- Not on a walk-in basis. The building was damaged in the January 2024 Noto Peninsula earthquake and the interior has been closed while repairs are arranged. The exterior can be viewed at any time from the public path along the Minatogawa. Contact the owner association, on the Minatogawa, or the Himi City Museum to check the current position before travelling.
- Where is the Former Rush Products Warehouse and how do you reach it?
- The address is 907-7 Asahihonmachi, Himi City, Toyama Prefecture, on the left bank of the Minatogawa in the town centre. From JR Himi Station, the terminus of the Himi Line, it is around 700 metres on foot, roughly ten minutes. Drivers usually come via the Noetsu Expressway; there is no dedicated visitor car park at the building.
- What are the rush products that gave the Former Rush Products Warehouse its name?
- Rush, or igusa, is a marsh plant whose dried stalks are woven into tatami omote, the surface layer of a tatami mat, and into goza mats and mushiro matting. Himi grew and processed it from the Edo period until about 1965, and this warehouse served as the gathering point for finished goods before they went to market.
- How badly was the Former Rush Products Warehouse damaged in the 2024 earthquake?
- Himi recorded a seismic intensity of 5-plus on 1 January 2024. Stones at the boat landing cracked, the foundations were fissured, sections of earthen wall came away from the warehouse and its entrance vestibule, and the roof frame was harmed. The owner association has said the building held up better than feared and has been raising money publicly for repair and reuse.
- What else is worth seeing near the Former Rush Products Warehouse?
- The Minatogawa Warehouse stands immediately south and the Former Rush Products Workshop immediately west, both registered on the same day in 2021. The Minatogawa Riverwalk continues south through the town centre, and Himi's fishing port and morning market lie within walking distance. Himi is also the hometown of the manga artist known as Fujiko Fujio A, and the town centre carries several references to his work.
Basic Information
| Name | Former Rush Products Warehouse (旧藺製品倉庫, Kyū I-seihin Sōko) |
|---|---|
| Location | 907-7 Asahihonmachi, Himi City, Toyama Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Building), registration number 16-0155 |
| Year Designated | Registered 14 October 2021 |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Earthen storehouse construction, single-storey, tiled roof; building area 192 square metres |
| Owner | on the Minatogawa (general incorporated association) |
| Public Access | Exterior viewable from the public riverside path at any time. Interior closed since the January 2024 earthquake; enquire with the owner association or Himi City Museum. |
References
- National Cultural Properties Database, Agency for Cultural Affairs — Kyu I-seihin Soko
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00013983
- Cultural Heritage Online — Kyu I-seihin Soko
- https://online.bunka.go.jp/heritages/detail/587163
- Himi City — Minatogawa Warehouse, Former Rush Products Warehouse and Workshop
- https://www.city.himi.toyama.jp/gyosei/soshiki/hakubutsukan/bunkazai/7675.html
- Cultural Heritage of Toyama — Kyu I-seihin Soko
- https://toyama-bunkaisan.jp/search/5534/
- Cultural Heritage Online — Minatogawa Soko
- https://online.bunka.go.jp/heritages/detail/553865
Last verified: 2026.08.24