A Brick Facade With No Bricks In It
The Johana Textile Association Office Building (城端織物組合事務棟, Jōhana Orimono Kumiai Jimutō, also written Johana Orimono Kumiai Jimuto) is a two-storey timber building at 648-1 Jōhana in Nanto, Toyama Prefecture, completed in 1928 and entered on Japan's national register of Tangible Cultural Properties on 4 December 2000. It is owned by the city of Nanto and now operates as a community facility called SHARE Jōhana Oriyakata.
Almost every guidebook calls the building brick. It is not. The Agency for Cultural Affairs records the structure plainly: timber frame, two full storeys, tile roof, 274 square metres of floor area. The front elevation is mokkotsu mortar, a timber armature rendered in mortar, faced with scratch tile laid to read as brickwork from across the road. Walk to the side and the illusion drops away; the flank is an ordinary wooden building under Japanese tiles.
That gap between the front and the sides is the point of the registration, not an embarrassment to it. The registration criterion applied here was that a building is a model of its type, and what this building models is a specific provincial ambition: how a rural producers' association in 1928 chose to present itself to buyers arriving from Kyoto and Tokyo.
What Went On Inside
Jōhana had been a silk town since the early modern period. It grew up as a temple town around Zentokuji, the Jōdo Shinshū branch temple, and drew raw silk down from the sericulture villages of Gokayama in the mountains behind it. Under the patronage of the Kaga domain the cloth travelled to Kyoto, Osaka and Edo as Kaga-kinu, and the money that came back paid for the town's festival floats. Weaving carried on expanding through the Meiji and Taishō periods, and a producers' association was formed to handle what individual weavers could not.
The 1928 building housed that work. The national record gives its purposes as association administration together with inspection and drying of cloth for shipment. Materials published by Nanto and the local tourism bodies describe the same rooms slightly differently, as the place where cloth was inspected and stamped so that products met a common standard. The two accounts are compatible in substance, since inspection is common to both, but they do not say the same thing about what else happened here, and the difference is worth flagging rather than smoothing over.
Local accounts add that a siren mounted on the roof once sounded the hours for the town. That detail comes from secondary sources rather than the national survey.
Registration number 16-0059 was issued in the twenty-seventh round of registrations, with public notice on 20 December 2000. One point of terminology: registered properties are registered, not designated. Many local write-ups use the word designated for this building, which belongs to the stricter category above.
Visiting the Building in Its Third Life
The building has been open to the public since 2003, when the city converted it into Jōhana Oriyakata, a silk centre with a gallery, shop, dye room and hand-weaving studio upstairs. That operation ran for two decades.
In 2025 the building changed hands again in operational terms. The silk weaving company Matsui Kigyō took on the running of it, raised repair funds through a crowdfunding campaign that drew about 4.4 million yen from 366 backers against a target of 2.5 million, and reopened the premises as SHARE Jōhana Oriyakata on 9 May 2025 after a preview day on 5 May. The refit brought in a bakery kitchen, workshop space using local silk and cloth offcuts, and a shared-shelf library and secondhand bookshop run by residents.
Hours announced at the reopening were 11:00 to 18:00, closed Mondays and Tuesdays. Because the operator and the schedule both changed recently, confirm current hours before travelling rather than relying on older listings, many of which still carry the previous 10:00 opening and Wednesday closure. Entry to the ground floor is free; hands-on weaving and craft sessions are charged separately and have historically needed booking.
Jōhana Station on the JR Jōhana Line is about twelve minutes on foot, and the line runs from Takaoka. Directly across the road stands the Jōhana Hikiyama Kaikan, which houses the floats of the Jōhana Hikiyama Festival. That festival, held on 4 and 5 May, was designated an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property on 12 February 2002 and inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List in 2016 as one of the Yama, Hoko and Yatai float festivals. Seeing the floats and then standing in the building that inspected the silk which paid for them makes the connection concrete in a way neither does alone.
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Q&A
- Can the Johana Textile Association Office Building be visited?
- Yes. The building operates as SHARE Jōhana Oriyakata, a community and craft facility. Hours announced at the May 2025 reopening were 11:00 to 18:00, closed Mondays and Tuesdays, with free entry to the ground floor. Because the operator changed in 2025, check current hours before you travel.
- Is the Johana Textile Association Office Building actually made of brick?
- No. The Agency for Cultural Affairs records it as a two-storey timber building with a tile roof. The front is a timber armature rendered in mortar and faced with scratch tile so that it reads as brickwork. Many guides describe it as brick, which is inaccurate.
- When was the Johana Textile Association Office Building built and registered?
- It was completed in 1928, the third year of Shōwa. Registration as a Tangible Cultural Property took effect on 4 December 2000, with public notice on 20 December 2000, under registration number 16-0059. The owner is the city of Nanto.
- How do I reach the Johana Textile Association Office Building?
- The address is 648-1 Jōhana, Nanto City, Toyama Prefecture, about twelve minutes on foot from Jōhana Station on the JR Jōhana Line, which runs from Takaoka. The Jōhana Hikiyama Kaikan stands directly opposite.
- What was the Johana Textile Association Office Building originally used for?
- The national record states that it housed association administration along with inspection and drying of cloth for shipment. Materials issued by Nanto and local tourism bodies describe it as the place where cloth was inspected and stamped to enforce a common product standard. Both accounts agree on inspection.
Basic Information
| Name | Johana Textile Association Office Building (城端織物組合事務棟); currently SHARE Jōhana Oriyakata |
|---|---|
| Location | 648-1 Jōhana, Nanto City, Toyama Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure); criterion: a model of its type; registration number 16-0059 |
| Year Designated | Registered 4 December 2000; public notice 20 December 2000 |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Two-storey timber frame, tiled roof, building area 274 square metres; front elevation in mokkotsu mortar with scratch tile |
| Owner | Nanto City |
| Public Access | Open as SHARE Jōhana Oriyakata. 11:00 to 18:00, closed Mondays and Tuesdays as announced in May 2025; ground floor free of charge. Confirm before visiting. |
References
- National Cultural Properties Database, Agency for Cultural Affairs: Johana Orimono Kumiai Jimuto
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00002032
- Cultural Heritage Online, Agency for Cultural Affairs: Johana Orimono Kumiai Jimuto
- https://online.bunka.go.jp/heritages/detail/167342
- Toyama Prefecture: List of Registered Tangible Cultural Properties (Structures)
- https://www.pref.toyama.jp/3009/bunkazai/bunkazai_shitei_touroku/registered_building_list.html
- CAMPFIRE crowdfunding project: SHARE Jōhana Oriyakata
- https://camp-fire.jp/projects/831044/view
- Tabi Nanto (Nanto City Tourism): Jōhana Hikiyama Festival
- https://www.tabi-nanto.jp/johana_hikiyama/
- Nanto City Culture and Arts Archives: Jōhana Hikiyama Festival, UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage
- https://culture-archives.city.nanto.toyama.jp/heritages/unesco0001/
Last verified: 2026.08.24