Ironai Bank District Postcard

These postcards are part of the Ironai Bank series, a collaboration with the Otaru Art Village, which promotes Otaru's historical culture through the bank buildings and stone warehouses that make up its historic landscape. The designs include three types: the former Hokkaido Takushoku Bank Otaru Branch, the former Mitsui Bank Otaru Branch, and illustrations of 10 bank buildings built between the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Bank buildings, which symbolize Japan's modernization, carry on the history and memories of Otaru's past prosperity and are carefully preserved as cultural heritage that shapes the Otaru landscape today.


There are three different card designs.

[Former Hokkaido Takushoku Bank Otaru Branch]
This reinforced concrete building was constructed in 1923, at the height of Otaru's economy, around the same time as the Otaru Canal. This illustration depicts the exterior of the building, which was one of the largest in Hokkaido at the time of its construction and still adorns the intersection of Ironai Bank Street.


[Former Mitsui Bank Otaru Branch]
Built in 1927, this steel-framed, reinforced concrete building is a symbolic bank building of Otaru, once known as "the leading economic city in northern Japan." It has also been designated an Important Cultural Property of Japan. This illustration depicts the Renaissance-style exterior, with its characteristic arches and heavy stonework.


[Ironai Banking District]
This book contains illustrations of ten bank buildings built between the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Otaru flourished as the gateway to Hokkaido from the Meiji to Taisho periods. The bank architecture, a symbol of Japan's modernization, carries on the history and memories of the city's past prosperity and is carefully preserved as a cultural heritage that shapes the Otaru landscape of today.

From the Meiji period onwards, Otaru flourished as a port town replacing Hakodate and a coal shipping port, becoming a base for the development of Hokkaido. People and goods gathered here from various regions, and financial institutions flourished from the Meiji period through to the early Showa period. The area around Ironai Odori, where banks were built one after another, later came to be known as "Ironai Banking District." This landscape, where bank buildings built around 100 years ago still stand in a narrow 500-meter radius, is unique in Japan. It can be said to be a symbol of the modernization of not only Hokkaido, but of Japan as a whole.