A two-story wooden Western-style building designed by William Merrell Vories and completed in 1921. It served as a post office until 1960, then stood empty for years until the NPO Hitotsubu no Kai restored it, rebuilding the Spanish-style front entrance that had been removed. A nationally registered tangible cultural property, it is now a gallery and event space, open mainly on weekends.
8 Nakayamachi-naka, Omihachiman, Shiga
Sources: omi8.com tabi-mag.jp
This moment in the journey
A town straight out of a period drama
Omihachiman, in Shiga Prefecture, is a town where the houses of the Omi merchants, built from the last years of the Edo period into the Meiji era, still stand in orderly rows. White-walled storehouses line the canal, and roofed boats drift slowly along the water.
Walking along the canal, past storehouses perched on stone walls, I came to the old Hachiman Post Office, designed by William Merrell Vories and built in 1921: cream-colored walls and an arched entrance. The whole town felt like the set of a period drama.
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More notes from this journey
Omihachiman, Shiga
Funazushi ochazuke
Funazushi is a fermented sushi found throughout Shiga: crucian carp from Lake Biwa, salted and then layered with cooked rice in a tub to ferment for more than h…
From: A day in Omihachiman, where boats glide through town
Omihachiman, Shiga
Omi beef steak
Omi beef is Shiga's pride, Japan's first brand of beef and counted among the three great wagyu.
From: A day in Omihachiman, where boats glide through town
Omihachiman, Shiga
Chojifu with mustard dressing
Chojifu is Omihachiman's local wheat gluten, cut into squares.
From: A day in Omihachiman, where boats glide through town
Omihachiman, Shiga
Hachimanbori Canal
A 4,750-meter canal dug in 1585, when Toyotomi Hidetsugu, nephew of Hideyoshi, built his castle on Mt.
From: A day in Omihachiman, where boats glide through town
Omihachiman, Shiga
Hakuunkan
Built in 1877 as the Hachiman East School by Omi merchants to educate their children, in a Western-influenced style, with most of the cost covered by donations.
From: A day in Omihachiman, where boats glide through town
Omihachiman, Shiga
Himure Hachimangu Shrine
An ancient shrine long revered as the guardian of the Omi merchants.
From: A day in Omihachiman, where boats glide through town
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From: Making New Year's Eve soba in a Kyoto townhouse
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Each osechi dish carries a wish.
From: Making New Year's Eve soba in a Kyoto townhouse
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From: Making New Year's Eve soba in a Kyoto townhouse
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From: Chestnuts, saury and an autumn feast
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From: Chestnuts, saury and an autumn feast
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From: Chestnuts, saury and an autumn feast