Mitsuhama Three-Generation Community Dining: Relationship Diagram – The town of Mitsuhama, originally formed around sandbars, now brings together people from diverse backgrounds.
The project site is located in Mitsuuma, Matsuyama City. During the Edo period, this area served as the domain port of Matsumae Domain and flourished as a major transportation hub. While the primary port functions eventually shifted elsewhere, the shopping district developed during the pre-war period and maintained active commercial activity until the 1970s. As local fuel sources shifted from coal to oil, the rise of supermarkets, and increasing car ownership accelerated the area’s decline, leading to persistent population outmigration. Today, it has become one of Matsumae City’s most rapidly aging and depopulating districts.
The client was born and raised in this community and currently operates a construction business specializing in renovation work. The project began when the client, who grew up in this area, decided to relocate their headquarters to the vacant lot and open part of it as children’s community dining space, hoping to contribute to the local community.
During our research into Mitsuhama, we discovered that while the port’s primary functions had gradually moved elsewhere, the shopping district had developed its commercial infrastructure by the pre-war period, maintaining active commercial and manufacturing activities until the 1970s.
However, the decline became more pronounced as local fuel sources shifted from coal to oil, supermarkets emerged, and car ownership became widespread. With population outmigration continuing unabated, today this area in central Matsuyama City has become one of the regions experiencing both aging and declining populations.
The client, who specializes in renovation-based construction, was born and raised in this community.
In response to these challenges and opportunities, we found that children’s dining spaces—perhaps by coincidence—held significant potential to preserve the area’s rich heritage while helping to address its shortcomings.
The project evolved with the goal of creating a space where not only children but also people of diverse ages and backgrounds from the shopping district could gather and interact.
Interestingly, we found that the children’s dining project—while embracing these positive aspects—also held great potential to help address the challenges.
Our goal was to create a space where not only children but also people from various generations and backgrounds in the shopping district could gather and interact. This aligned perfectly with the client’s strong belief that the area lacked something essential for the community.
Research: The History of Mitsuhama
Medieval Period: Mitsuhma as a natural harbor formed by an elongated sandbar between the Miyamae River and the sea
Examining the terrain classifications (natural topography) on Geospatial Information Authority of Japan’s Geoportal Map reveals that this area was originally a long,
narrow sandbar formed through the interaction between the Miyamae River and the sea, stretching north to south. The area known as Furu-Mitsu(old town), which likely had a fishing village settlement dating back to the Edo period,
features a landscape where sandbars float atop an alluvial plain, suggesting it once formed a natural harbor with a small inner sea. Additionally, as the Miyamae River served as one of several major routes connecting to the Dōgo Plain via the Ishida River,
Mitsuhama developed into an important defensive stronghold during the medieval period, with the Mitsuyama Castle built across the bay from the main town. The fish market that still operates in Mitsuhama today is believed to have originated as a rice, grain, and seafood market held below the Mitsuyama Castle.
These natural topographical advantages are thought to have laid the foundation for this early commercial activity.
Early Modern Period: Mitsuhama as a Domain Port
The turning point that transformed Mitsuhama forever came with the construction (or refortification) of Matsuyama Castle.
An old historical map reveals that, much like Nagasaki’s Dejima island during Japan’s isolationist policy, Mitsuhama had a secluded trading area isolated from the rest of the town, surrounded by residential districts for shipowners, townspeople,
and shipbuilders. In the area now occupied by the elementary school to the south, there used to be a teahouse where feudal lords would stay to wait out winds before boarding their ships.
Considering the sandbar’s location, this area was chosen for its relatively low risk of flooding from river surges – a testament to the wisdom of earlier generations.
A port sustained by well water that seeped into the sandy soil
Well water was extremely important during times when modern water systems didn’t exist. Since clean spring water also kept well during long sea voyages,
it was particularly valuable for this purpose. Just north of the current elementary school, a town well remains standing at the intersection with the shopping district.
The underground water flow beneath the sandbar can be seen moving slowly parallel to the river’s current.
The Seto Inland Sea salt fields that once existed in Mitsuhma—along with the surviving soy sauce breweries that remain today.
When discussing the Seto Inland Sea during the Edo period, one inevitably comes to the “Ten Province Salt Fields” – the salt production areas located in domains including Harima, Bizen, Bicchu, Bingo, Aki, Suō, Nagato, Awa, Sanuki, and Iyo.
These salt fields were crucial export commodities in an era when each domain maintained self-sufficient economies. The Seto Inland Sea’s suitability for salt production stemmed from two key factors: the region’s dry climate (particularly in Okayama Prefecture, often called “the Land of Sunshine”) and the significant tidal range between high and low sea levels in the Seto Sea.
While Iyo/Ehime’s salt production is often associated with islands like Hakatajima (thanks to brands like “Hakata no Shio”), numerous salt fields actually existed along the coastline. Mitsuhama’s salt fields were one such example. The area south of the tea house and along the low-lying terrain between the Mitsuhama and Minatoyama stations of the Iyo Railway was once used for salt production.
This abundant salt and pure well water gave rise to numerous soy sauce breweries. During the Meiji to Taisho periods when soy sauce production expanded nationwide, Mitsuhama saw its own number of breweries increase.
Today, this small area still retains four active soy sauce breweries. During the Edo period, miso served as the primary seasoning in rural areas, making it a culturally significant product within urban communities. This makes the Seto Inland Sea—as a major transportation artery—particularly well-suited for soy sauce production.
Modern Era: The formation of shopping districts and gradual decline/population outmigration due to port function decentralization
As evidenced by the first railway line in modern Matsuyama City connecting Matsuyama and Mitsuhama, the area has always been one of Matsuyama’s most important districts.
However, as ships grew larger, the shallow harbor—connected to the river and prone to sand accumulation—could no longer effectively serve its intended functions. This led to the gradual relocation of long-distance passenger services and major logistics operations to other locations.
Until the 1970s, coal loading and unloading operations were conducted here, but these gradually shifted to oil-based fuels, effectively ending the port’s shipping functions. This period also coincided with the emergence of supermarkets as dominant retail establishments.
The traditional Mitsuhama shopping district—preserved in its Edo-period layout—has faced increasing difficulties in securing parking spaces, particularly with the widespread adoption of private vehicles. This has coincided with declining bus and train ridership, as well as population decreases in nearby island communities that once relied on short-distance passenger services.
The district’s economic decline has become increasingly severe. Historical records suggest the area once had an arcade with multiple movie theaters, but today most shops remain shuttered. The mixed-use buildings now mostly house elderly residents, with vacant lots gradually increasing as the properties are left without heirs.
Amid this changing landscape, shopkeepers who remain active, local U-turn residents, newcomers, and people who simply love Mitsuhma—all from different backgrounds and circumstances—are now actively engaging with the mixed-use buildings that define this town.
However, numerous challenges remain to be addressed. The ongoing demographic decline and population outmigration show no signs of slowing down. The traditional shopping district, with its preserved Edo-period townscape, struggles to adapt to the car-centric society. While it bustles with visitors on holidays and during events like fireworks displays, weekdays are sparsely populated.
Many shops operate only on specific days of the week, with numerous establishments closing entirely on most days. Many shop owners have shifted their focus to combining retail with manufacturing and online sales, as maintaining standalone stores has become increasingly difficult.
A Children’s Community Dining Space in an Historic Residential-Commercial District
The pedestrian-friendly character of the shopping district
The site is located on a T-intersection within the shopping district. This area appears to have functioned as a teahouse district during the Meiji period, with small, fragmented buildings resembling former brothel structures still densely packed on either side of the street.
Unlike modern shopping malls operated by developers, this Mitsuhama shopping district is a vibrant, organically formed community where residents have come together – a place that’s rich with diverse, sometimes eclectic personalities, if we’re being honest.
What makes shopping streets so fascinating is that they were designed primarily for pedestrians, and their architectural structure remains remarkably effective even today. This holds true for all shopping districts, but is particularly evident in areas like Mitsuhama that retain their historic street layout – a situation that, as mentioned earlier, has left them somewhat marginalized in today’s car-centric society.
In urban areas with high public transportation usage like Tokyo, shopping districts along train lines thrive as bustling commercial hubs. But in car-centric cities like Matsuyama, where public transportation isn’t widely used, the vibrant activity is limited to central terminal stations.
However, from another perspective – which might seem like a drawback for a car-centric society – this concentration of pedestrian-priority or pedestrian-only areas actually represents one of this area’s unique attractions and advantages that other regions lack. This perspective has been recognized by the local government, which is now providing subsidies to promote walkable urban development to attract tourists.
One of the key aspects we identified as particularly important for this project was the pedestrian-only nature of this open space within the shopping district.
We wondered: Could we uncover and highlight this pedestrian-only space’s unique appeal from the perspective of local residents? This became one of the key themes in our design approach.
How should we approach the pedestrian-oriented shopping district?
The site is too narrow to accommodate both a construction company office and a community children’s dining space as single-story buildings, so we designed it as a two-story structure.
We designed the building with two floors: the ground floor dedicated to the children’s dining space and the second floor for the construction company’s office space, ensuring the facility remains actively open to the community.
A shared plaza area that doubles as parking space for continuous use with the cafeteria
The site features a long, narrow footprint facing the street. This presented a key challenge in designing the relationship between the building and its surroundings: where to properly locate parking and loading spaces for both the office staff, children’s dining service staff, and parents dropping off/picking up children? We initially considered three possible configurations.
The first design option placed parking/loading spaces directly facing the street. As new residential buildings are being constructed in Mitsuhama’s shopping district—with an increasing number of such conversions—this approach has become more common in the area.
This solution provides sufficient parking/parking space while maintaining stress-free access. However, it results in the building recessing into the property, making parked vehicles obstructive and reducing the building’s connection to the street.
The second approach involves designing the building to face the street like a traditional longhouse-style gate while incorporating an entrance at the rear, with parking spaces located deeper within the structure. This maintains maximum visibility and connection to the street. Instead, parking becomes more stressful as visitors must navigate narrow passageways to reach the parking area.
We ultimately decided on the third option: positioning the building perpendicular to the street. Interestingly, from the shopping district side, the adjacent buildings have their parking areas tucked back toward the interior, creating homes that resemble traditional longhouses.
This arrangement allows our building to serve as a strong visual focal point without needing to face the street directly, effectively enhancing its relationship with the surrounding area.
By designing the long parking area toward the back, we ensured that staff can work comfortably in the back while visitors have ample space in front, effectively reducing parking stress for guests. During off-hours or when hosting street events, the extended parking area can be transformed into an adjacent public plaza, enhancing community interaction.
A versatile tatami room that can be utilized in various ways
The first floor’s children’s dining space isn’t operated daily—it’s actually only open once a week. Therefore, the first floor wasn’t exclusively designated for the children’s cafe – considering rental income potential, we needed to design it as a more versatile, open-access rental space that could accommodate various users.
Currently confirmed uses include operating as a food service establishment, serving as a classroom for after-school programs, and functioning as an event space. In some cases, these different uses overlap, and the target audience ranges from children to adults and the elderly. To accommodate these different uses, we designed the space to be partitioned and utilized flexibly.
Given the building’s width and requirements for loading/storage space, the children’s dining area’s kitchen was positioned toward the rear of the facade, leaving more flexibility for activities in the front area. The design features two entrances facing the street, with a central floor plan divided into three tatami-mat islands running north-south. By installing shoji screens, we created clear separation between these islands and the passageways, enabling simultaneous use of multiple functions.
By incorporating elements like the large fishing banners flown by local boats and the traditional Iyo kasuri cotton fabrics that flourished in Matsuyama during the Meiji era, we hope these noren curtains will serve as educational touchpoints for community history and local industries.
Design considerations for achieving unity and continuity between the tatami room and public space
For the north-facing tatami room facing the plaza, we designed it to function both as a veranda-style space from the building side and from the plaza side, allowing for seamless integration between the two areas.
When considering potential times for integrated use, it was estimated that spring and autumn—when the weather is pleasant—as well as summer during events like fireworks displays would be most likely.
As a solution, we designed the exterior doors to function as both storm shutters and screen doors, allowing them to be retracted into storage when not in use. This enables the full 4-shaku (approximately 7.28 meters) width to be opened, creating seamless integration between the tatami room and public space. By installing storm shutters filled with insulation material, we enhanced thermal performance compared to standard glass doors.
Since the primary structure was wooden, we designed the center tatami room to have no unnecessary load-bearing walls. To ensure structural integrity, we added supplementary bracing columns around the outer perimeter to support the tatami area. This structural reinforcement method was inspired by the Meiji-era wooden open-air fish market that once existed in Mitsuhama.
The north and south tatami rooms overlap with these structural reinforcements. While the storm shutters are mounted on the vertical columns, the insect screens are attached to the diagonal reinforcement columns.
This design transforms the north and south tatami rooms into semi-outdoor seating areas suitable for seasonal use. The storm shutters serve as both an interior/exterior boundary and provide superior insulation, with wooden cores reinforced for thermal performance and triple-glazed windows exceeding standard insulated sash standards.
However, achieving watertight sealing comparable to window sash would require excessive costs. Therefore, we compensate for this by designing deep eaves to minimize rainwater contact with the storm shutters. The deep eaves block interior daylight, so we designed the eave ceilings in white to enhance reflection, while using calcium silicate board to ensure fire resistance in the historic wooden-structured densely built area of the neighborhood.
Since wooden storm shutters couldn’t be made too thick for weight reasons, we designed the south side of the building to include a garden area to keep it outside the potential fire zone.
The Cultural Legacy of Mitsuhama’s Sandy Grounds
The sand that protected the town from floods
Mitsuhama, originally an outdoor marketplace that once flourished atop a sandbar, has long been protected by this very sand. Reviewing the hazard maps from simulated tsunami inundation along the Nankai Trough reveals this protective feature clearly.
The expansive sandbar area experienced either no flooding or minimal inundation (approximately 30cm), while areas further inland—such as Furumitsu’s former rural farmland and saltpan regions along the Miyamae River floodplain—were projected to suffer greater flooding damage. The damage is projected to be minimal in areas closer to the original settlement of Furu-Mitsuma, where the natural terrain consists of sandbars and dunes.
The site is located precisely at the boundary between a sandbar and reclaimed land, with projected flooding reaching approximately 30cm. To address this, we’ve raised the building foundation through earthen embankments and designed the parking lot to gradually slope downward toward the back, ensuring proper drainage during floods. To accommodate the planned elevation, we’ll use fine sandstone for the fill material, transforming the parking area and plaza into a natural sand playground.
Japan’s steep terrain features rivers that gradually break down mountainous sediment and rock over time, providing abundant sand supplies.
Sand is one of Japan’s few domestically available resources, playing a vital role in construction—from concrete foundations in wooden homes to mortar and glass in non-reinforced concrete structures. It supports society in countless unseen ways.
There are even predictions that future population growth in Asia and Africa could trigger a global “sand war” over supplies of modern concrete structures—much like how water scarcity affects us, this resource’s importance often goes unnoticed in Japan’s abundant supply.
While Ehime previously mined sea sand for construction purposes, environmental concerns and material quality considerations have led to an increased reliance on mountain sand and imported sand from other prefectures.
To help visitors connect with this relationship with sand, the tatami-floored sitting area’s concrete floor and first-floor load-bearing walls feature a polished granite aggregate finish, creating a visual continuity between the sand plaza and the building to enhance a sense of unity.
The layered history of Mitsuhama’s streetscape
While central Matsuyama was completely destroyed by wartime bombings and later reconstructed with modern street planning while preserving some historic structures, Dogo and Mitsuhama escaped these bombings, allowing their original street layouts to remain intact to this day.
This means some buildings date back to the Edo and Meiji periods. Until 1921, when Matsuyama Electric Tramway operated streetcar service from this location to Enokuchi near the ferry terminal (connecting Mitsu and Dōgo), commercial activity was concentrated further inland than it is today.
This area was originally a residential district for Edo-period townspeople, with its history dating back to that era. The oldest buildings are concentrated in the innermost parts of the district. When the local tram line was absorbed by the Iyo Railway, the company discontinued service to the ferry terminal, leaving the current Iyo Railway Mitsuhama Station as the primary gateway to the ferry and market.
This marked the formation of the modern shopping district’s core structure. In the postwar period (1948/Showa 23), the local merchants formed the Mitsuhama Merchants Association, which marked the formal establishment of the current shopping district. (Database “Ehime’s Memory”) These postwar shopping district revitalization efforts were closely tied to national government policies (including subsidies), which saw widespread construction of covered walkways and similar infrastructure during this period. Alongside these revitalization initiatives, fire prevention measures were implemented as a priority.
The mortar-coated wooden buildings characteristic of Showa-era shopping districts originated from efforts to make them fire-resistant, responding to the dense wooden structures of post-war black markets.
The 1952 Fireproof Building Promotion Act and 1961 Disaster Prevention Building District Development Act implemented policies aimed at urban non-flammability (through subsidy programs), with shopping districts selected as fire-resistant zones to block the spread of fires (regional urban non-flammability initiatives in the 1950s).
The distinctive character of Mitsuhama’s shopping district today is shaped by these post-war fire-resistant wooden buildings with mortar finishes, complete with DIY additions like corrugated iron sheds and drying racks that give the area a nostalgic Showa-era atmosphere.
The period of intensive land reclamation also began during this time, with small-to-medium-sized factories and warehouses expanding outward from the older residential areas.
These buildings from the 1950s and 1960s, born out of post-war fire prevention measures, have now endured 60-70 years of wear. The shop owners have aged, local industries have declined, and warehouses and factories now stand vacant, gradually leaving behind empty lots. Here too, makeshift solutions like corrugated sheet coverings have temporarily stabilized adjacent walls, creating an intriguing mix of old and new, vacant spaces.
The building’s exterior doesn’t follow the traditional uniformity of designated Important Preservation Districts or modern office districts. Instead, we aimed to create a facade that blends harmoniously with Mitsuhama’s unique, mixed-era character – a chaotic yet charming amalgamation of old and new architectural elements.
The ground floor houses the children’s dining space, featuring a deep eaves and a design that prominently showcases its wooden frame, reminiscent of Meiji-era open-air markets.
The second floor adopts a metal corrugated panel exterior wall structure to comply with post-war fire prevention regulations. This is also because the second floor has a greater risk of fire spread, requiring higher fire resistance than the first floor. The decision to use mortar came down to its higher recycling rate compared to standard ceramic siding when disposed of.
Mitsuhama: A Town Where Diverse People Gather
As reflected in the town’s history, Mitsuhma possesses a distinct urban atmosphere where individuals of diverse ages, professions, and backgrounds coexist in harmony.
However, as society’s broader structural changes have left this area behind over time, it has struggled to leverage these distinctive qualities. As a result, vacant lots have proliferated, buildings have been redeveloped into residential spaces, and the area has gradually become indistinguishable from surrounding residential districts.
The strong economic drivers that once defined Mitsuhma—such as its status as a key port town and logistics hub—are now largely unrecoverable under current societal structures. A new foundational axis is needed. The emergence of new business models—such as work-life integration with residential spaces and online stores serving as primary operations—suggests this location is evolving beyond its traditional role as a shopping district.
The rental space centered around the children’s dining program also serves as a platform for supporting these innovative initiatives to take root.
By opening the children’s dining space to not just local children but also their parents and elderly residents, we’re helping reestablish the community information gathering function that traditional shopfronts once played. These gathered insights will serve as valuable strategic resources for aspiring entrepreneurs. The multi-generational community dining space on the ground floor will serve as the central hub for these initiatives.
The office space on the second floor primarily focuses on construction work while also incorporating real estate and web/app development services. Our approach involves identifying vacant properties without clear future plans, conducting assessments to repurpose them as new community assets, and developing essential services that local shops and neighborhoods lack.
This enables us to provide comprehensive support to communities in need. The results of our experiments on the first floor will be expanded throughout the community.
Our goal is to create a virtuous cycle of positive change in the community through the Three-Generation Community Dining Project.
