If you’re visiting the Motomachi area, this is a worthy place to stop in at. The family has done a great job of putting together the various exhibits and the care and work they’ve put into it is obvious. It is a small museum and the 2nd floor is especially interesting. While mostly in Japanese, Google Translate is easy to use and there’s plenty in the way of images that you can understand without words. I left feeling like I understood much more about the history and development of Hakodate as a city from the perspective of regular townsfolk which is what I was looking for. It is a nice complement to the formal government-diplomat perspective of places like The Old Public Hall of Hakodate Ward and the Former British Consulate.

Lovely, small museum.

Used be my friend's house😅

History place

260506 Car trip from Sapporo via Obihiro to Hakodate🚙 Finally the second half of the trip Film Last Man -FIRST LOVE- Pilgrimage to filming locations I made it to Hakodate✨️ On the way to Mt. Hakodate, I wanted to learn about the city of Hakodate, so I stopped by🍀 And then I learned for the first time that this museum has a deep connection with the Red Brick Warehouses😊 This building was the Western goods shop, the former Kanemori Moriya Western Goods Store⛴️, opened by Kumashiro Watanabe, one of the so-called Hakodate Four Heavenly Kings Kumashiro was born in Oita Prefecture and in his youth was adopted into the Watanabe family, medicinal herb merchants in Nagasaki🧒 In 1863 (Bunkyu 3) he went to the newly opened, lively Hakodate⛴️ He quickly sensed the trend for Western goods and in 1869 opened a Western goods shop, the Kanemori Moriya Western Goods Store🏠 He expanded his business in many directions, including marine products, shipping, and books, and in 1887 began Hakodate's first commercial warehouse business💨 This was the prototype of the Kanemori Warehouses☝️ In the great fire of 1907 the warehouses were destroyed🔥 In 1909 sturdy red brick warehouses were rebuilt Kumashiro also contributed greatly to the region by founding Hakodate Shimbun, Hokkaido's first newspaper, establishing an elementary school for children, building Hakodate Hospital and Hakodate Park, and planting windbreak forests in the Yunokawa area✨️ The greatest star of this museum is the building itself🏛️ Suffering repeated great fires, it was built using bricks and lime, and even in the great fire of 1907, when the surroundings were burned to the ground, it miraculously escaped unscathed✨️ It is now designated as a Hokkaido Tangible Cultural Property📝 The 1st floor is a solid Japanese-style earthen storehouse, and the 2nd floor has a Western-style design lined with beautiful arched windows A Japanese-Western blended style unique to the port city of Hakodate👍️ Step inside and you see a scene of stylish Meiji-era Hakodate commerce🍷 Imported sundries, clothing, cosmetics, and other daily goods, which were cutting edge at the time, are lined up in rows✨️ What catches the eye among them is👀 a bottle of Kelee sake🐓 Kelee is Dutch for something boiled down into a jelly or gel-like consistency A concentrated extract soup made by simmering chicken or beef slowly🍲 This chicken extract mixed with alcohol is Kelee sake🍶 It was sold not as a luxury item but as an all-purpose medicinal liquor, like Yomeishu or an energy drink Another thing they showed me was a canned venison labeled BUSSAN-KIOKU (Products Bureau) It seems it was designated as a product handler for the Hokkaido Development Commission and sold there🫎

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