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Kanemori Red Brick Warehouse

— Hakodate's bayside warehouse quarter

historyOff the trail — and worth it

A row of brick warehouses on Hakodate's bay, rebuilt after a fire and now holding four separate venues — shops, a beer hall, an event hall and a waterfront block built around a canal. Entry costs nothing; the buildings are the attraction.

FromHakodate Station
~15 minCity tram, Lines 2 and 5
Get off atJujigai tram stop (Hakodate City Tram)
On foot
Kanemori Red Brick Warehouse

Directions ↗

The sweet spot

This is a headline stop on every Hakodate itinerary, and the quay is busy whenever the trams are running. The less obvious point is that the complex has a back: a canal runs between two of the blocks, with walkways on both banks, and the crowd thins there because the shop entrances all open the other way.

Where it is

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What to look for — in walking order

BAY Hakodate canal663highland / CC BY 2.5

Kanemori Yobutsukanlinked warehouse halls given over to homeware, crafts and cafes
Hakodate History Plazaan open warehouse volume holding a beer hall and shops under the original roof structure
Kanemori Halla 440-square-metre event room taking around 200 people for concerts and exhibitions
BAY Hakodate canala waterway cut between two brick blocks, crossed by a footbridge and walkable on both banks
The quay frontthe paved waterfront where the gabled ends line up against Mount Hakodate

How to actually get there

Hakodate Station tram stop → Jujigai (City Tram Line 2 or 5, shortest fare band at 250 yen).
Jujigai → the quay on foot, about five minutes downhill toward the harbour.
Walk the waterfront side first, past the gable ends facing the moorings.
Cut through to the canal between the blocks and come back along the walkways.

City tram from Hakodate Station: Hakodate Station tram stop →(City Tram Line 2 toward Yachigashira, or Line 5 toward Hakodate Dokku-mae)→ Jujigai, then on foot to the quay. Confirmed at the time of writing, this ride falls in the operator's shortest fare band at 250 yen. Both lines share the track as far as Jujigai, so either one works.
Return from Jujigai: Walk back up to Jujigai and take either line toward Hakodate Station. Service thins in the evening, and the branches beyond Jujigai run less often than the shared section, so if you stay past the shops' closing check the posted timetable at the stop before waiting.

Directions from my location (Google Maps) ↗

About the place

The Kanemori warehouses line the quay in Suehiro-cho, on the harbour side of Hakodate's old foreign quarter. What looks like one long building is four separate operations under a shared name: Kanemori Yobutsukan, Hakodate History Plaza, Kanemori Hall and BAY Hakodate. The brick is not decorative. These are working warehouse volumes — thick walls, iron shutters, gable ends carrying the company mark — converted rather than replaced, so the spans inside stay long and the ceilings stay high. Behind the roofline Mount Hakodate rises straight out of the town, and that stacking is why the quay in front of the warehouses is one of the most photographed stretches of the city.

How to enjoy it

The shops keep to roughly 9:30 to 19:00, so the block has two distinct moods: a working shopping street by day, and after closing a quiet lit facade with the harbour water beside it. The canal side is the part most people walk past, because the shopfronts face the quay. Going one way along the water and back through the canal covers both in a single loop.

Background & history

The business began in 1887, when Kumashiro Watanabe bought existing sheds on the waterfront and moved into commercial warehousing as Hakodate's port trade grew. A fire in 1907 swept the district and took six of the warehouses. The replacements went up by 1909 in non-combustible materials, which is the reason brick defines the block today rather than timber. The buildings kept storing cargo for most of the twentieth century before being opened up as shops, halls and restaurants.

Before you go

Cash: Walking the site and the canal costs nothing; you pay only inside the shops and the beer hall. Hakodate's trams charge by distance and take cash as well as transport IC cards including Suica, PASMO and ICAS nimoca.
Good to know: The block is outdoors and faces open water, so wind off the bay is the thing to dress for, and the canal walkways can ice over in winter. Individual venues keep their own hours, and the beer hall runs later than the shops.
Another way: From Hakodate Station you can also walk the whole way along the waterfront, past the morning market and the older commercial blocks, instead of taking the tram.
After you get off: From Jujigai the walk is about five minutes downhill toward the water; the warehouses appear on the right once you reach the quay.