Red brick architecture was synonymous with 19th-century Yokohama. An iconic landmark, Yokohama Port Memorial Hall, boasts a clock tower with alternating red and white bricks. The Red Brick Warehouses on Shinkō Pier have survived through a century despite an earthquake, a world war, and the prospect of demolition. They are the focus of Yokohama shoreline today. But who first made bricks in Yokohama? Find the answer in Motomachi Park.
Meiji-era buildings in Yokohama were built with bricks manufactured by a Frenchman, Alfred Gérard. He was born in 1837 in Reims, northern France, and arrived in Yokohama penniless in 1863. He sold wheat, wine, and sausages but was determined to set up his own business. He seized an opportunity in 1867 when land became available on the Yamate slopes, in today’s Motomachi Park. He designed underground filtration tanks, taking advantage of the excellent water source (also used to brew the beer now known as Kirin). Gérard’s Navy Waterworks supplied it to ships leaving port for the trans-oceanic journeys to Europe, and sailors swore that it remained pure across the Indian Ocean.
In 1873 the enterprising Gérard built a steam-powered factory, earning great profits selling bricks and tiles. One of the first major buildings made entirely of Gérard Brick was the impressive German Military Hospital, and brick buildings soon became common. Fires were frequent, but brick walls and tiled roofs prevented disaster. He owned and rented several Yamate properties, and by 1874 he controlled more land than any other merchant. He was “the man who built Yokohama.”
Gérard retired to Reims in 1878, donating his vast collection of Japanese art and 25,000 books to his hometown. His grave features a torii gate flanked by stone lanterns. His brick factory and waterworks continued to thrive under his successors. The waterworks were called Mizu-yashiki (Water Mansion), and after the 1923 earthquake, many survivors relied on this water.
However, the earthquake revealed the weakness of brick alone without the iron infrastructure used in the Red Brick Warehouses. The post-1923 reconstruction of Yokohama emphasized steel-reinforced concrete, and red brick today is a symbol of an earlier Yokohama.