Former Mitsui Bank Otaru Branch

The Former Mitsui Bank Otaru Branch is one of the proudest survivors of the district once nicknamed the 'Wall Street of the North', a concentration of grand bank buildings that testified to Otaru's status as a financial powerhouse in the early twentieth century. Completed in 1927, this branch was built in a restrained classical style using stone-clad, steel-framed construction, an advanced technique for its time that also made the building notably resistant to earthquakes. Its dignified facade lines up with the other banks along Nichigin-dori, together forming one of Japan's most impressive streetscapes of pre-war financial architecture.

In its heyday Otaru handled the money as well as the goods of a developing Hokkaido. As coal, herring, timber and grain flowed through the port, the major banks of mainland Japan opened substantial branches here, and the resulting cluster of stone and brick temples to commerce gave the town an air of metropolitan confidence out of proportion to its size. The Mitsui branch, with its solid masonry and coolly symmetrical front, embodies that era of prosperity.

Today the building has been carefully restored and reopened as part of the Otaru Art Base, a group of historic structures run as museums and galleries by the Nitori company. Inside, the great banking hall is the star, its high coffered ceiling and generous proportions preserved so visitors can appreciate the grandeur in which banking was once conducted. The old vault survives too, and displays explain the building's construction and the history of the banking district. Depending on the season, the interior may host art exhibitions drawing on the Art Base collections.

Because it belongs to the Art Base cluster, the branch pairs naturally with the nearby Stained Glass Museum and the Nishimachi and canal-side buildings, and combined tickets are usually available for those who want to see several. This makes it easy to build a satisfying architectural walking route through central Otaru, taking in the Former Nippon Yusen branch, the canal warehouses and the bank district in a single outing.

Admission is around 700 yen and a visit takes roughly forty-five minutes, longer if a special exhibition is on. Otaru lies a short JR train ride from Sapporo, covered by the Japan Rail Pass, and the banking district is a ten-minute walk from the station toward the canal. For travellers who appreciate fine early-modern architecture and want to understand the commercial machinery behind Otaru's boom, the Former Mitsui Bank branch is a standout.