Miyahara Ice Cream

Coordinates: 24°08′16.2″N 120°41′00.7″E / 24.137833°N 120.683528°E / 24.137833; 120.683528
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Miyahara Ice Cream
Front entrance to Miyahara Ice Cream
Map
Restaurant information
Established2012 (2012)
Food typeConfectionery
Street addressNo. 20, Zhongshan Rd.
CityCentral District, Taichung
Postal/ZIP Code400002
CountryTaiwan
Coordinates24°08′16.2″N 120°41′00.7″E / 24.137833°N 120.683528°E / 24.137833; 120.683528
Websitewww.miyahara.com.tw

Miyahara Ice Cream (Chinese: 宮原眼科; pinyin: Gōngyuán Yǎnkē; lit. 'Miyahara eye clinic') is a confectionery, restaurant, and ice cream parlor in Central District, Taichung, Taiwan. The building is converted from a former ophthalmologist clinic dating to 1927, hence its Chinese name. The building is operated by Dawncake (日出), a Taichung-based confectionery brand.

History[edit]

Takekuma Miyahara [ja] was born on December 13, 1874, in Chiran, Kagoshima Prefecture. As doctoral graduate of Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and the Institute of Infectious Diseases in Japan, Miyahara owned clinics in Kagoshima City and Tokyo, and briefly worked at Tainan Hospital [zh] as the ophthalmology director.[1]

In 1927, Miyahara opened a clinic in Taichung on the banks of the Lu River. At the time, it was the largest eye clinic in the city. Miyahara continued to operate the clinic until the end of the Japanese occupation of Taiwan in 1945, where he returned to Japan; the building was then used by the Taichung City Health Bureau [zh]. Wanting to move to a bigger building but lacking the funds to do so, the bureau came to an agreement with local businessman Zhang Ruizhen (張瑞楨): Zhang would finance the construction of the new expansion in exchange for the old building. The bureau moved to its new location in 1959, near the current Taichung Hospital [zh].[2]

Afterwards, the building was occupied by a wide range of tenants, including a clinic for sexually transmitted infections, a cram school, a dumpling restaurant, a hairdresser, two taxi and bus dispatch companies, and more. After several disagreements, Zhang forcefully evicted the tenants in 1964, and in 1970 the building was used as an office for the newspaper Taiwan Daily. The building sustained heavy damage in the 1999 Jiji earthquake and the 2008 Typhoon Kalmaegi, and after the typhoon, the building was in ruins and abandoned.[2]

In 2010, Dawncake purchased the ruins, and over the next two years, refurbished the building into a restaurant. The store opened to the public in 2012.[2][3] After the success of Miyahara Ice Cream, the Dawncake group also refurbished the nearby Fourth Credit Union, a former bank, in a similar manner.[4]

Architecture[edit]

Miyahara Ice Cream is located at the corner of Zhongshan Road and Luchuan East Road, on the banks of the Lu River. It is a four-story structural steel building: the bottom two floors uses the original brick structure as a facade and preserved the building's qilou, and the top two floors is a newly-added space covered by architectural glass in a style similar to a mansard roof.[5] The first floor sells ice cream and various pastries, while the second floor is a Taiwanese cuisine restaurant named "Moon Pavilion", which a "Bib Gourmand" eatery in the Michelin Guide.[6][7] The atrium in the interior is often paralleled to that of Hogwarts in the Harry Potter franchise.[8][9]

Miyahara Ice Cream is commonly cited as one of the earliest urban renewal projects in Central District in the 2010s.[3][4]

Gallery[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ 台湾新民報社 (1937). 台湾人士鑑 (in Japanese). 台湾新民報社. p. 355. doi:10.11501/1686485. Retrieved December 24, 2021.
  2. ^ a b c 張雅筑 (January 11, 2021). "老照片故事/宮原眼科60年舊照曝 前身曾是第一性病醫院". SET News (in Chinese (Taiwan)). Retrieved December 24, 2021.
  3. ^ a b 德田光弘 (December 13, 2018). "危樓化身宮原眼科 讓日本來台取經的地方創生". United Daily News (in Chinese (Taiwan)). Retrieved December 24, 2021.
  4. ^ a b 鄭景雯; 陳政偉 (June 1, 2019). "重造中央書局:台中文化地景的重生". Central News Agency (in Chinese (Taiwan)). Retrieved December 24, 2021.
  5. ^ Chang, Ching-Jung; Wang, Yu-Hui. "The Discussion of the Design for the Reutilization of the Lost Historical Architecture— A Case Study on "Miyahara Eye Hospital" and "The Forth Credit Cooperative Association of Taichung"" (PDF) (in Chinese (Taiwan)). Taiwan Society of Construction Engineers. Retrieved December 25, 2021. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  6. ^ 李佳芳 (January 6, 2017). "古老醫院裡的美麗驚喜 宮原眼科". 天下雜誌 (in Chinese (Taiwan)). Retrieved December 25, 2021.
  7. ^ "Moon Pavilion". Michelin Guide. Retrieved December 25, 2021.
  8. ^ 李珮雲 (October 24, 2020). "台中人氣地標空蕩蕩 老外一眼驚豔:媲美哈利波特場景". China Times (in Chinese (Taiwan)). Retrieved December 25, 2021.
  9. ^ 張菁雅 (March 11, 2018). "台中歷史建築活化 開餐廳居多". Liberty Times (in Chinese (Taiwan)). Retrieved December 25, 2021.