Otaru City Herring Palace | Otaru Tourism

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In the first half of the Meiji era, herring fishing was the main industry in Hokkaido, with a larger production value than coal mining, which later became the main industry.

From the early Meiji period, managers of fixed net (square net/set net) fishing businesses began to build unique buildings that served as both lodgings for their numerous fishermen and residences for the managers (masters). Masters who fished in areas isolated from settlements in particular built huge buildings.

The Tanaka family of Tomari Village on the Shakotan Peninsula also built their main house in 1897. In western Shakotan, where cliffs continue, fishpond-like inlets called Fukuroman, where nets containing herring were stored, developed, and in Tomari Village, where the Tanaka family lived, the Fukuroman and brick storehouse still remain, and there was also a huge drying area on the cliffs.

The herring hut (fishing ground architecture) is characterized by its large gabled exterior, skylight that also serves as a smoke vent, and two entrances for the fishermen and the master. Inside, the master's living space and the fishermen's space coexist separated by a dirt floor, with a built-in sleeping quarters in the fishermen's area.

This building was relocated to Otaru City (on the current cape) in 1958, with only the main house being rebuilt. The scale was reduced in part during the relocation, and the location is also very different from its original coastal location.

It is now open to the public as the Otaru City Herring Palace, a museum exhibiting folk tools, documents, literature, photographs, and more related to herring fishing. Please take a look around the area along with the remaining fishermen's houses of Shukutsu.

Facility name : Otaru City Herring Palace

address
3-228 Shukutsu, Otaru City, Hokkaido 047-0047

phone
0134-22-1038

Opening hours
9:00-17:00 (until 16:00 from October 16th)

Closed days : Open every day during the period: April 3rd (Sat) - November 23rd (Tue), 2021

Home page
https://otaru-aq.jp/nishingoten

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This shop, renovated from the "Old Otaru Warehouse Main Building," said to be the oldest commercial warehouse in Hokkaido in the Otaru North Canal area, develops and sells original products that convey the charm of Otaru. The shop tells the story of Otaru's prosperity during the Hokkaido pioneering era and the history of the Kitamae ships, and displays and sells processed seafood and agricultural products from ports of call and Hokkaido, as well as original products by artisans and artists with ties to Otaru.