Banjo Brewery Bottling Workshop

What the Banjo Brewery Bottling Workshop Is

The Banjo Brewery Bottling Workshop (萬乗醸造瓶詰作業場, Banjō Jōzō Binzume Sagyōba) is a Taisho-period single-storey timber workshop in Otakacho, Midori Ward, Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) on 31 July 2007 under registration number 23-0236. It runs east to west on the brewery site, south of the former rice milling workshop.

The building measures 9 Ken along the ridge and 4 ken across, with a Kirizuma-zukuri roof covered in iron sheet rather than tile, and a floor area of 147 square meters. A storage wing 6 ken by 1 ken extends north from the eastern end of the north wall along the site boundary, leaving a broad working area in front of it. Construction is dated between 1912 and 1925.

The walls are Shinkabe construction, with posts and beams left exposed. Bottling means drawing matured sake into bottles and sealing them for shipment. Bottled distribution spread after the Meiji Restoration, and breweries needed a building for the work. The Banjo Brewery Bottling Workshop was put up in response to that change.

Why It Was Registered

The Banjo Brewery Bottling Workshop was registered under the criterion of contributing to the historic landscape of the nation. It also carries the most advanced construction technique of any building on the site.

The Aichi Prefectural Board of Education describes the roof framing as a king post truss, a triangular frame with a vertical member at its centre, built with paired timbers sandwiching an inner member and joined with U-shaped box fittings and bolts. Instead of the cut-and-fitted joinery of traditional Japanese carpentry, the connections are clamped with metal.

The twelve registered structures on the site range in date from the late Edo middle storehouse to this Taisho workshop. The Banjo Brewery Bottling Workshop marks the point at which Edo-period timber joinery and modern metal connections stand within the same walls. The blanket registration of 31 July 2007 was a decision to keep that whole range.

What to Look For

The roof sets this building apart. Of the twelve registered structures at the brewery, the Banjo Brewery Bottling Workshop is the only one not roofed in tile. Against the heavy ranks of pantiles elsewhere on the site, its roof plane reads as smooth.

The king post truss matches the type used in the former rice milling workshop, but the members are handled differently here. A built-up beam is made by pairing thin timbers around an inner member so that the assembly performs like one much heavier beam. Section can be gained without relying on the size of available logs, which makes a wide column-free floor easier to achieve.

With shinkabe walls, the posts, beams and trusses are all in view inside. There is no applied decoration; what can be seen is the structure. That directness is the character of the Banjo Brewery Bottling Workshop.

The storage wing running north is long and narrow, 6 ken by 1 ken. Setting it along the site boundary leaves an open working apron in front of it, so the shape of the building follows the flow of the work.

Visiting

The Banjo Brewery Bottling Workshop stands inside the premises of an operating sake company. The interior is closed and the grounds cannot be entered. It sits toward the south of the site, so there are few points on the public road that give a direct view of it. The company states on the FAQ page of its official site that it does not sell sake at the brewery.

Photography from the public road is not restricted. The Banjo Brewery Bottling Workshop is largely screened from the street, and the brick chimney of the former rice milling workshop to the north is the easiest way to locate it. Avoid photographing into the premises or at people at work.

Odaka Station on the JR Tokaido Main Line is about 15 minutes away on foot. Enter the old quarter from the station and follow the left bank of the Otaka River westward into the brewing street. Midori Ward publishes a 5.7 kilometre walking route, the Odaka Castle Town Course, which runs through it toward the castle site.