Banjo Brewery White Rice Warehouse

What the Banjo Brewery White Rice Warehouse Is

The Banjo Brewery White Rice Warehouse (萬乗醸造白米倉庫, Banjō Jōzō Hakumai Sōko) is a Taisho-period two-storey plastered storehouse in Otakacho, Midori Ward, Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) on 31 July 2007 under registration number 23-0240. It runs east to west on the brewery site, south of the detached quarters and east of the new storehouse.

The building measures 4 Ken along the ridge and 2.5 ken across, with a Kirizuma-zukuri roof of Sangawara-buki pantiles and a doorway on the south side. Its floor area of 46 square meters makes it the smallest building among the twelve registered structures at the brewery. An inspection room 1.5 ken deep and 2.5 ken wide is attached to the east gable, roofed in Irimoya-zukuri form with pantiles. Construction is dated between 1912 and 1925.

The warehouse held polished brewing rice between milling and mashing. Polished grain takes up moisture readily, and its moisture content carries straight through to the result of the fermentation. The Banjo Brewery White Rice Warehouse was built with thick plastered walls to slow the effect of outside conditions.

Why It Was Registered

The Banjo Brewery White Rice Warehouse was registered under the criterion of contributing to the historic landscape of the nation. It forms one side of the courtyard south of the main house, together with the former rice milling workshop and the rice steaming room of the original storehouse.

Twelve structures at the brewery were registered together on 31 July 2007. Rice moves through the site in sequence: milling, storage, steaming, then mashing. The Banjo Brewery White Rice Warehouse is the second stage, placed between the former rice milling workshop and the steaming room. The order of the process and the arrangement of the buildings correspond.

Storage buildings are small and easily replaced. At 46 square meters this one is modest, yet it survived with its inspection room intact. The value of the blanket registration rests on the fact that no stage of the process is missing from the compound.

What to Look For

The inspection room on the east gable is the most striking feature. It is a small space, only 1.5 ken deep, yet its roof is built in Irimoya-zukuri form, a hipped-and-gabled type that combines the gable and the hip. Irimoya roofs carry rank and are usually found on temples, shrines and formal reception halls. Using the form on an annex to a warehouse is unusual.

An inspection room is where the condition of rice and sake is checked. Judging moisture and broken grain calls for steady light. Whether the roof form was chosen for daylight and appearance or simply followed from how the addition met the existing building cannot be settled from the primary records.

The main body is a small storehouse 4 ken long with its door on the south side. The detached quarters lie to the north of the Banjo Brewery White Rice Warehouse and the new storehouse to the west, so a plain working store sits between refined sukiya rooms and a long fermentation hall.

All of this faces the courtyard and cannot be seen from outside the walls. From Shinmachi-dori the most a visitor can pick out is a small ridge overlapping behind the roofs of the main house and the new storehouse.

Visiting

The Banjo Brewery White Rice Warehouse stands inside the premises of an operating sake company. The interior is closed and the grounds cannot be entered. Because it faces the internal courtyard, it is difficult to see from the public road at all. 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, though framing the Banjo Brewery White Rice Warehouse itself is not realistic. The main house, the new storehouse and the brick chimney of the former rice milling workshop are the landmarks by which to place 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.