When Zenbei Tajima, Yahei Tajima and others went to Europe in 1879 for the purpose of directly exporting silkworm eggs to Italy, they came into contact with Christianity. After returning to Japan, they were baptized in 1886. The following year, they remodeled a shed on their property and turned it into a church. In 1897, the Japan Methodist Shimamura Church was constructed at its present site. The name was later changed to United Church of Christ in Japan, Shimamura Church. It is a wood-frame, partially two-story building with a Western-style design, featuring a distinctive hipped-gable roof and a half-timber style entrance. The first-floor chapel remains as it was at the time of construction.