Aramasa Sake Brewery Ginjogura

The Brewhouse Linked to Kyokai No. 6 Yeast

Aramasa Sake Brewery Ginjogura (新政酒造吟醸蔵, Ginjōgura) is a single-storey earthen-walled brewhouse from the middle Meiji period (1883 to 1897) on the grounds of Aramasa Sake Brewery in Omachi, Akita City, and it was listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on April 25, 2014. Ginjō is also the word for sake brewed slowly from highly polished rice.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes Aramasa Sake Brewery Ginjogura as the fermentation house tied to the origin of Kyōkai No. 6, the oldest yeast strain still in use. Of the five listed buildings at the brewery, it is the only one whose official description mentions yeast at all.

A House Yeast Isolated in 1930

According to Osaka University, in 1930 Oana Fujio of the national brewing research institute isolated the resident yeast of Aramasa Sake Brewery. After trials at another Akita brewery it was distributed across Japan as Kyōkai No. 6. The brewer at the time was the fifth-generation Satō Uhē, born Satō Usaburō (1895 to 1947). The Akita Sake Brewers Association calls it the oldest Kyōkai yeast still sold.

Yeast is the microorganism that turns sugar into alcohol in the fermenting mash, and a brewery's resident strains shape its sake batch after batch. By noting this history in the listing for Aramasa Sake Brewery Ginjogura, the agency points to the fermentation that happened inside as part of what makes the building worth keeping.

The Smallest Building, in the Southeast Corner

Aramasa Sake Brewery Ginjogura stands in the southeast corner of the site beside the office, its ridge running east to west. It measures 13.5 meters by 7 meters, with a footprint of 94 square meters, the smallest of the five listed buildings.

The gabled pantile roof is of the Okiyane type, carried on its own supports above the earthen walls. A projecting drip ledge (mizukiri) and a Hachimaki plaster band run around the walls, and the east face has two windows sealed with lime plaster.

Its registration number, 05-0200, is the first of the brewery's five consecutive numbers, and it was registered for contributing to the historic landscape of the country.

Seeing Aramasa Sake Brewery Ginjogura

Aramasa Sake Brewery Ginjogura is inside the working brewery and its interior is closed. Its corner position suggests it sits close to the street, but how much can be seen from outside the grounds could not be confirmed. If it is in view, look for the two plastered windows on the east face and the eaves of the floating roof.

Take photographs only from the public road and stay clear of people and vehicles using the office entrance.