Kitakyushu Bank Moji Branch
This building has housed many banks in its history. It first opened in 1934 as a branch of Yokohama Shōkin Ginkō, or Yokohama Specie Bank, which conducted currency exchange and financed foreign trade.
The bank building has a distinctly more classic design than other historic buildings in the area. This is a hallmark of Sakurai Kotarō (1870–1953), a London-educated architect who considered himself a classicist. Kotarō achieved this classical feel through the relief carvings of festoons above the windows and above the pilasters (design elements that look like Greco-Roman pillars) that flank the door.
Yokohama Specie Bank was built close to the city center to cater to commercial customers rather than to travelers or to the shipping companies that were clustered around the docks. This is evidence of the wave of prosperity that spread across Moji, during which residents and visitors alike frequented fashion boutiques, restaurants, and entertainment venues that were relatively far from the port. There was such a large concentration of wealth in Moji that many banks, including the Bank of Japan, opened branches in the city.
Yokohama Specie Bank closed in 1946, and Yamaguchi Bank (headquartered in Shimonoseki, across the strait) took over the building. The bank later became the Yamaguchi Financial Group (YFG), and in 2011, YFG created the Kitakyushu Bank as a subsidiary to handle its northern Kyushu operations.
