A Government Office in Timber, 1934
The Former Sericultural Experiment Station Shinjo Branch (Main Office) is a single-storey timber office building of 1934 in Tokamachi, Shinjo City, Yamagata Prefecture, entered on the national register as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 29 March 2013.
It stands at the southern end of the grounds, directly inside the gate. The roof is hipped and covered with pantiles, the footprint measures 259 square metres, and a small gabled porch projects from the centre of the south front. The walls are rendered in mortar, with the surround of each window built up a few centimetres proud of the surface.
The plan is symmetrical. From the entrance a corridor runs along the rear of the building, and two rooms open off it on each side. The branch head's office, the clerical room and the laboratories occupied those four spaces. Ornament is confined to the porch; everything else is a matter of putting the rooms that were needed side by side at the size they had to be.
Three dormers sit in the roof, two facing south and one north. They light and ventilate the roof space of what is otherwise a low building, and from a distance they read as small boxes resting on the slope.
Why It Was Registered
The registration number is 06-0135, the first of the ten issued to the Shinjo Branch on the same day. The criterion applied was the first of the three, covering structures that contribute to the historic character of the landscape.
The Main Office received that first number because it represents the public face of the site. Set on the axis of the gate, matched in roof form and wall finish by the egg inspection and incubation rooms to its west and the egg cold storage and preservation rooms to its east, it turns three separate buildings into one south-facing composition.
What counted was not refinement of design. It was that a standard prewar provincial government office survives here with its plan and its wall treatment largely undisturbed. Mortar render with raised window surrounds was common in Japanese public buildings of the 1930s, and insulation work or recladding has erased it almost everywhere. At the Former Sericultural Experiment Station Shinjo Branch it is still on show at the front.
What to Look For
Start with the porch, seen head on. That small gabled projection makes the building's axis of symmetry visible. Stand square to it and the ridge of the porch, the centre of the doorway and the apex of the hipped roof behind line up.
Compare the two south dormers. They match in size and in their position on the slope. The single north dormer sits closer to the centre, above the internal corridor, which is a small clue to how the rooms are arranged inside.
The window surrounds look flat from any distance. Walk up to one and you can see the mortar of the frame standing proud of the wall. They sit at hand height, so running a finger along the edge gives you the depth directly.
Inside, the exhibition room is the reason to go in. The former clerical office now holds silk moth specimens, the tools that were actually used for rearing during the station years, and material on Hiratsuka Eikichi, a Shinjo-born agricultural scientist and honorary citizen of the city. The tools are the originals, and they make clear how much handwork raising silkworms involved.
Visiting This Building
The exhibition room in the Main Office is open free of charge from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. It closes on Tuesdays and from 29 December to 3 January.
The building also houses the garden office, which handles bookings for rentable rooms elsewhere on the site. Only the exhibition room is open to visitors; the office and the remaining rooms are not.
Photography is allowed outside and in the exhibition room. Please keep cameras away from the office side. The full elevation fits in frame from the south, through the gate, and morning to midday light brings out the shadow of the porch and the raised window frames.
You can walk right round the building. From the north side you can see where the covered corridor joins it. In winter the northern path is not always cleared, so watch your footing.
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Q&A
- Can visitors go inside the Main Office of the Former Sericultural Experiment Station Shinjo Branch?
- Only the exhibition room is open, free of charge, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. It closes on Tuesdays and from 29 December to 3 January. The garden office and the other rooms are not open to visitors.
- What is displayed in the Main Office exhibition room?
- Silk moth specimens, the rearing tools used during the station years, and material on Hiratsuka Eikichi, an agricultural scientist from Shinjo who was made an honorary citizen of the city.
- When was the Former Sericultural Experiment Station Shinjo Branch Main Office built?
- In 1934, the same year the site opened as a sub-office of the Fukushima branch of the national sericulture experiment station. The office was the first building at the centre of the layout.
- How is the Main Office constructed?
- It is single-storey timber with a hipped pantile roof and a footprint of 259 square metres. The walls are mortar rendered with raised window surrounds, and there are three dormers, two south and one north.
- Is photography allowed at the Main Office?
- Yes, outdoors and in the exhibition room. Avoid pointing a camera towards the garden office. The south side, shot through the gate, gives the whole elevation.
Basic Information
| Name | Former Sericultural Experiment Station Shinjo Branch (Main Office) |
|---|---|
| Location | 6000-1 Toumeki, Tokamachi, Shinjo City, Yamagata Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) |
| Year Designated | Registered 29 March 2013 |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Single-storey timber, pantile roof, footprint 259 square metres |
| Owner | Shinjo City |
| Public Access | Exhibition room open free, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; closed Tuesdays and 29 December to 3 January |
References
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, National Cultural Properties Database: Main Office
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00009415
- Shinjo City: On the Registered Tangible Cultural Properties
- https://www.city.shinjo.yamagata.jp/k001/020/010/030/030/9635.html
- Shinjo City: Shinjo City Ecology Garden, Gensan-no-Mori
- https://www.city.shinjo.yamagata.jp/g/kanko/020/010/010/
- Shinjo City: Facility Guide
- https://www.city.shinjo.yamagata.jp/k001/020/010/030/010/6468.html
- Michi-no-Eki Shinjo Ecology Garden Gensan-no-Mori: Facility Guide
- https://michinoeki-eg.jp/facility/
Last verified: 2026.09.14
