A Building That Was Moved to Make a Garden
Shofuro Nishi-to (松風樓西棟, also written Shōfūrō, the West Building of Shofuro) is a two-storey wooden building in Fukumitsu, Nanto City, Toyama Prefecture, built in 1900 and listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in October 2014. It stands toward the western edge of the Shofuro site, separated from the East Building by a courtyard.
Its history has an unusual wrinkle. The Agency for Cultural Affairs records the construction date as 1900, the same year as the East Building, but gives relocation around 1951 and remodelling around 1958. The building now occupies a position it was not built in.
The explanation lies in how Shofuro expanded. When the Saito family took over the house in 1921, the surrounding street was Fukumitsu's licensed quarter, and the neighbouring plots held houses of the same kind. Under Saito Takekichi, the second-generation proprietor, two of these to the west were purchased. Rather than demolish them, the family had them lifted and shifted on their frames, a technique called hikiya, which was standard practice for timber buildings in Japan and remains in use. The point of the exercise was space: moving the structures opened ground for a garden, and the site reached roughly its present arrangement around 1958.
The timing carries some weight. Japan's Anti-Prostitution Law was promulgated in 1956, took effect in April 1957, and its penal provisions came into full force on 1 April 1958. Shofuro had already restarted as a ryotei, a restaurant serving formal Japanese cuisine, by the time the garden was finished. Takekichi disliked the suffix ro, which read as a brothel name, and changed the house name to Shofuen. His great-grandson, the fourth-generation proprietor Saito Bunji, later changed it back, preferring to keep the name the business had carried from the beginning.
Plaster Cornices and an Earthen Corridor
At 168 square metres, the West Building is roughly a third the size of the East Building, and its detailing points in a different direction. The Agency for Cultural Affairs citation names the feature that decides its interest: the plaster cornice running under the second-floor eaves, a moulded band of white lime plaster in horizontal ridges. This is a mark of local teahouse architecture, the building type developed for the entertainment districts of this part of Toyama, and it reads as a small declaration of what sort of house this was.
The front elevation carries a hip-and-gable roof, a slightly more formal profile than the plain hipped roofs of the East Building. A single-storey wing containing the bath and lavatories attaches at the north end. On the ground floor the plan makes room for a Buddhist altar room and an adjoining antechamber, a domestic provision inside a building otherwise given over to guests.
The corridor linking the West Building to the East Building repays attention. Its southern half is an earthen floor rather than a raised timber one, and a doorway set at the midpoint opens onto the courtyard. So the passage between the two wings is not a sealed interior route. Guests moving from one building to the other crossed a threshold in the middle where the garden opened up on one side, and the two courtyards the corridor helps enclose become part of the sequence rather than something viewed from behind glass. The staff of the inn called the West Building the hanare, the detached quarters, which is the vocabulary of a garden pavilion rather than an annexe.
Visiting Kannon-machi
Shofuro closed permanently in 2022 after 122 years, and the West Building is not open to the public at present. A repair and reopening project began in 2025, led by Koshin LLC, a company based in Fukumitsu. Its fundraising campaign through Nanto City ran from October 2025 to 3 January 2026 and raised 1,439,000 yen from 54 donors against a target of 2,700,000 yen. The published plan includes repairing the corridor described above so that visitors can reach the two storehouses from inside, which would make the West Building's link to the rest of the complex part of the visitor route.
The street outside is worth walking regardless of what is open. Kannon-machi held close to sixty establishments at its peak in the late 1970s. Fewer than twenty restaurants operate there now, and the stretch between Inari Shrine and Shofuro has a number of empty shopfronts, which is precisely the problem the restoration project sets out to address. Stone lanterns still line the main road, and the black board fences and lattice-fronted houses in the side lanes survive in enough number to give the district its character.
Fukumitsu Station on the JR Johana Line is about 600 metres east of the site, roughly eight minutes on foot. The station itself displays works by Munakata Shiko on its ceiling and walls, and a stone monument to him stands in the forecourt. He spent six years and eight months in Fukumitsu from April 1945, and the house he built here in 1946 survives as part of the Aizen-en memorial museum. Anyone wanting to see inside the West Building should contact Nanto City's cultural affairs division beforehand, since access depends on the state of the repair work. Photographing the exteriors from the public road is unrestricted.
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Q&A
- Why was Shofuro Nishi-to moved, and when?
- The Agency for Cultural Affairs records relocation around 1951. The Saito family had purchased neighbouring houses to the west and shifted them on their frames using the hikiya technique, which freed up ground for a garden. The site reached roughly its present layout around 1958.
- What architectural features led to Shofuro Nishi-to being registered?
- The citation names the moulded plaster cornice under the second-floor eaves as characteristic of local teahouse architecture. Registration took place on 7 October 2014 under the criterion of contributing to the historic character of the national landscape. Registration number 16-0097.
- Can I go inside Shofuro Nishi-to?
- Not at present. Shofuro closed in 2022 and the buildings are not open for general viewing. A repair project is under way that would open a route through the connecting corridor. Contact Nanto City's cultural affairs division before travelling. The exterior can be seen from the street.
- How is Shofuro Nishi-to connected to the East Building?
- A covered corridor runs between them across a courtyard. The southern half of the corridor has an earthen floor, and a doorway at its midpoint opens onto the garden, so the passage between the two wings is partly open to the courtyard rather than fully enclosed.
- Was Shofuro really a brothel before it became a restaurant inn?
- Yes. Shofuro opened in 1900 in what was then one of western Toyama's principal licensed quarters. It had shifted to operating as a ryotei by the late 1950s, around the time Japan's Anti-Prostitution Law came into full force in April 1958.
Basic Information
| Name | Shofuro Nishi-to (松風樓西棟) |
|---|---|
| Location | 7471-15 and adjacent, Fukumitsu Aza Kawara, Nanto City, Toyama Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure), registration no. 16-0097 |
| Year Designated | 7 October 2014 |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Two-storey timber frame, tiled roof, floor area 168 m² |
| Owner | Privately owned |
| Public Access | Not currently open. Repair and reopening project in progress. Exterior visible from the street. |
References
- National Database of Designated Cultural Properties, Agency for Cultural Affairs — Shofuro Nishi-to
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00010133
- Toyama Cultural Heritage Database — Shofuro Nishi-to
- https://toyama-bunkaisan.jp/search/2548/
- Nanto City Culture and Arts Archives — Shofuro
- https://culture-archives.city.nanto.toyama.jp/culture/bunkazai/bunkazai0247/
- Ryoko Shimbun — Registered Tangible Cultural Property inns, no. 95: Shofuro
- https://www.ryoko-net.co.jp/?p=50922
- Furusato Choice — Shofuro restoration project, Nanto City
- https://www.furusato-tax.jp/gcf/4700
Last verified: 2026.08.24