Former Hiroumi Warehouse
The Hiroumi Warehouse is a timber-framed stone warehouse built in 1889. The warehouse is distinguished by large arched stone doorways on the front and back of the building for loading cargo. The Hiroumi family were shipowners from Kaga in Ishikawa Prefecture, who established a warehouse business in Otaru in 1889. They traded in marine products and co-founded a marine insurance service with the Ukon family at the end of the nineteenth century. The Hiroumi shipping business was headquartered in Osaka and operated both wooden kitamaebune sailing ships and steamships made in England.
Like the other warehouses at the northern end of Otaru Canal, the Hiroumi Warehouse was built on reclaimed land in the Kitahama district. When the warehouse was built, the harbor was immediately in front of it and Temiya Station only a few hundred meters away, making it an ideal location for transporting and storing cargo from both land and sea. More land was reclaimed in front of the warehouses around 1914 when construction started on Otaru Canal.