Otaru Kihinkan !

by Kazu

The old building was used as a guesthouse of the fishermen's boss, the owner of fishing nets and vessels and is now a kind of museum in which many works of art, expensive saucers and pots, Japanese traditional lacquerwares are displayed.

The maintenance cost must be so expensive that some of that should be covered with the entrance fee of the garden and the building. Even so, most of the cost should be paid by the current owner of the facility.

When I met the owner of the facility, he was convinced of his duty to keep the traditional building as a treasure of Otaru citizens. He was and is an entrepreneur and was a member of Otaru City Council. He was courageous to invest in the new building shaped like a Japanese old castle to earn the money for the maintenance. Kudos to the owner !