Kojima Family Residence North Sake Brewery and North Storehouse

Two storehouses meeting at a right angle

Kojima Family Residence North Sake Brewery and North Storehouse (小島家住宅北酒蔵及び北蔵, Kojima-ke Jūtaku Kita-sakagura oyobi Kita-gura) is a pair of late Edo-period clay-walled storehouses in the castle town of Inuyama, Aichi Prefecture, built between 1830 and 1867 and entered on Japan's register of Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2005.

The name joins two buildings, and so does the registration. Both are Dozo-zukuri structures of two stories with Kirizuma-zukuri gable roofs of Sangawara-buki pantiles. The brewery runs east to west, the storehouse north to south, and they stand side by side. Together they cover 150 square meters and count as 1 building on the register.

The Kojima family have brewed in Inuyama since 1597 by their own reckoning, their speciality nindōshu, a medicinal liquor made with honeysuckle. Kojima Family Residence North Sake Brewery and North Storehouse occupies the far northern edge of a plot of roughly 1,000 tsubo, in the part of the compound given over to work.

Why the outline is so broken up

The defining fact about this building is that the two ridges run 90 degrees apart. Where an east-west range meets a north-south one, gable ends and eaves sides alternate, and the silhouette stops being a simple box. The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes the result as complex and full of variation.

A lean-to roof then sweeps down over the western half of the brewery's south face, tying the two ranges together. Under it lay the pressing floor, where the fermented mash was pressed to separate sake from lees. That stage was kept outside the storehouse walls, half in the open, because pressing means handling a great deal of liquid and a through draught helps.

So there are two sealed storehouses and one open shed, at three different heights and in two different orientations. The shape reads less as a design than as an accumulation: each function added where it was needed. That is why Kojima Family Residence North Sake Brewery and North Storehouse looks as tangled as it does.

Registration came under the criterion of contribution to the historic landscape, number 23-0176. Seven Kojima buildings entered the register on 9 February 2005: the main house, the guest wing, the south storehouse, this pair, the west sake brewery and preparation room, the reception room and the roofed wall. This one stands for the working northern half of the compound.

What to look for

Follow the roofs first. Where two ranges at right angles meet, their tiles have to be reconciled, and how the rainwater was made to run tells you a good deal about the carpentry.

Then note how low the lean-to sits. Its roof springs from partway up the storehouse wall, so the space beneath is dark and confined. Pressing was done in that half-light. Attaching a sheltered outdoor work floor to the flank of a storehouse is a pattern shared by larger brewing houses.

The wall thickness deserves a look as well. In Dozo-zukuri work, clay is built up in layers over a timber frame and openings are kept to a minimum. Fire and swings in temperature are held off; darkness inside is the price. Where the west brewery goes up three stories, Kojima Family Residence North Sake Brewery and North Storehouse stays at two and spreads sideways instead. Set side by side, the storehouses of one compound show how function reshaped a single building type.

Visiting

Kojima Family Residence North Sake Brewery and North Storehouse is privately owned and its interior is closed. It stands at the northern boundary, out of sight from the street frontage, so seeing the exterior means walking around the block.

Kojima Jozo sells nindōshu on the premises. Inuyama Tourist Association gives the hours as 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. with a break from noon to 1:00 p.m., closed Sundays and Wednesday mornings; telephone 0568-61-0165, parking for 10 cars.

Since 2025 part of the compound has been in use as lodging, presented by its operator as the Neriya wing. Tours taking in the storehouses are advertised but listed as in preparation, so anyone hoping to see Kojima Family Residence North Sake Brewery and North Storehouse from within should ask in advance.

The nearest station is Meitetsu Inuyama, about 10 minutes on foot from the west exit; Inuyama is roughly 30 minutes from Meitetsu Nagoya Station.

Photographing what is visible from public streets is unrestricted. Inside the gate the ground is private and in daily use by a shop and an inn, so entry and interior photography need the owner's or operator's agreement.