Saiya Sake Brewery East Storehouse

A storehouse you see through its shed

Saiya Sake Brewery East Storehouse (斎彌酒造店東蔵) is a single-storey earthen-walled storehouse of the early Shōwa era, from 1926 onwards, in the Ishiwaki district of Yurihonjo City, Akita Prefecture, listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 1998.

It covers 142 square metres under a tiled roof, standing north of the residence across a garden and alongside the middle storehouse. The two share a single covering shed.

That shed takes the form of a boarded enclosure raised around the earthen walls. It carries no ornament and the carpentry is plain. Because it has to wrap two buildings, however, it is large, and national records note that it stands out conspicuously within the compound. An entirely undecorated structure ends up governing the appearance of the property through sheer size.

Why wrap a storehouse in another building

Registration as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property came on 2 September 1998, number 05-0024, the last of the nine numbers issued here in the eleventh round of listings, on the ground of contribution to the historic character of the landscape.

The walls of an earthen storehouse are earth, straw and lime plaster. Dry, they are strong. Kept wet, they break down. Yurihonjo faces the wind and snow of the Sea of Japan head on, and wet snow driven horizontally works its way in under eaves to soak the wall.

The answer is a second wall outside the first. The boarded enclosure around Saiya Sake Brewery East Storehouse holds a layer of air between the earthen wall and the weather so that snow and rain never touch it. Boards can be replaced when they rot; repairing earthen plaster is far more work. The logic is to provide a surface that is allowed to fail.

The same thinking repeats across the site: three storehouses share one shed at the southwest corner, the document storehouse has its own at the southeast, and two are wrapped here. Of these, Saiya Sake Brewery East Storehouse has the plainest shed.

Two dates side by side

The middle storehouse next door belongs to about 1902, the year the brewery was founded. Saiya Sake Brewery East Storehouse is early Shōwa work, a gap of roughly a quarter of a century. They stand in line under one shed all the same, so from outside they look contemporary.

A compound like this was never built in one go. Trade grows, a storehouse is added, and the additions are covered together afterwards. The eleven registered structures divide into the two periods, around 1902 and the early Shōwa years, for exactly that reason.

South across the garden is the residence. Looking north from its reception rooms, a large boarded wall fills much of the view. Saiya Sake Brewery East Storehouse and its shed were the backdrop to the domestic side of the property as well.

Visiting

Saiya Sake Brewery East Storehouse is a working brewing facility and is not open. The tours run by Saiya Shuzōten are suspended, so there is no opportunity to go in. Standing north of the residence within the property, only part of its covering shed is visible from the road. Entering or photographing within the grounds requires the company's permission.

Hakkōkōji Taya, run by the brewery, is opposite and opens 10:00 to 17:00, closed Thursdays and Sundays. Its gallery screens video of the brewery for visitors who apply in advance, currently the most useful way to learn about buildings set inside the property like Saiya Sake Brewery East Storehouse.

From Ugo-Honjō Station on the JR Uetsu Main Line, walk north across the Koyoshi River about 1.5 kilometres, roughly 20 minutes. The city loop bus stops at Okeyachō. Enquiries go to Saiya Shuzōten on 0184-22-0536.