Mifune was a prospering sake-making town, and Honmachi Street, lined with white earthen wall storehouse-style sake breweries, merchants’ homes, and other buildings, and where Mifune Machinaka Gallery is located, was its economic epicenter. The main building of Mifune Machinaka Gallery, or Town’s Gallery, used to be a large townhouse that was built in 1802 and is said to have been the house where Mifune Town intellect Hayashida Yoshihiro was born. As the oldest merchant house in the prefecture, it continues today to keep alive Mifune’s image of a town of white-walled buildings. Presently, four buildings—the main building, two storehouses, and the annex—all of which were built between the late Edo period and the Meiji period, remain. Beginning in 2010, they underwent repair and restoration, having things like damaged beams replaced and strengthened and worn-out white walls fixed using a traditional method known as takekomai and other techniques. The process was completed in 2014.
The main building of Mifune Machinaka Gallery, or Town’s Gallery, used to be a large townhouse that was built in 1802 and is said to have been the house where Mifune Town intellect Hayashida Yoshihiro was born. As the oldest merchant house in the prefecture, it continues today to keep alive Mifune’s image of a town of white-walled buildings.
Presently, four buildings—the main building, two storehouses, and the annex—all of which were built between the late Edo period and the Meiji period, remain. Beginning in 2010, they underwent repair and restoration, having things like damaged beams replaced and strengthened and worn-out white walls fixed using a traditional method known as takekomai and other techniques. The process was completed in 2014.