Why a brewery keeps a pickle store
Saiya Sake Brewery Pickle Storehouse (斎彌酒造店漬物蔵) is a single-storey earthen-walled storehouse of about 1902 in the Ishiwaki district of Yurihonjo City, Akita Prefecture, listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 1998.
Its floor area is 20 square metres. The west storehouse on the same plot covers 372, more than eighteen times as much, which gives some sense of how far the scale of these buildings ranges. The roof is tiled. It stands west of the shop, in line with the bottle storehouse and the former rice storehouse that now houses the gallery.
The reason a sake maker needs a pickle store lies in what is left after pressing. Sake lees, the solid residue drawn off at the end of fermentation, make an excellent pickling bed. Vegetables cured in lees use up a by-product that would otherwise be wasted, and they fed the brewery workers and the household through the winter. Saiya Shuzōten still makes narazuke from its own lees, so the work Saiya Sake Brewery Pickle Storehouse was built for has continued in another form.
A building of a brewing street
Registration as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property came on 2 September 1998, number 05-0018. The criterion was contribution to the historic character of the landscape, which values what the building does within its compound and its street rather than what it is on its own.
National records attach a note about the district to this entry in particular. Ishiwaki was a place where brewers stood shoulder to shoulder through the Meiji and Taishō eras, and because so many of the buildings put up at the founding in 1902 survive here, the brewery has long been regarded locally as a reminder of that period.
A long explanation attached to a very small building may look disproportionate. But the registration system was never designed to pick out masterpieces. It exists to keep groups of ordinary buildings that accumulated through work and daily life, and Saiya Sake Brewery Pickle Storehouse makes that argument neatly.
The range of sizes
What stays with you after walking past this compound is the spread in the size of the storehouses. From the 20 square metres of Saiya Sake Brewery Pickle Storehouse to the 372 of the west storehouse full of storage tanks, each building was sized for its own job, and the whole set survives together.
The pickle store is flanked by the bottle storehouse and the old rice storehouse, and all three sit inside one covering shed. From the road you therefore see no storehouse at all. Knowing that three boxes of very different sizes stand behind that single wall changes how the corner looks.
Come in winter and the shed explains itself. Wet snow off the Sea of Japan blows in sideways and soaks earthen walls. Putting a building over a building is the economical choice in that climate, not an extravagance.
Visiting
Saiya Sake Brewery Pickle Storehouse sits within a working brewery and is not open to visitors. With the tours run by Saiya Shuzōten suspended, viewing means looking at the covering shed from the public road. The grounds are private property, so entering or photographing inside them requires the company's permission.
Hakkōkōji Taya, the shop and cafe the brewery runs opposite the compound, opens 10:00 to 17:00 and closes on Thursdays and Sundays. It sells the narazuke the company cures in its own sake lees, which is as close as a visitor now gets to what Saiya Sake Brewery Pickle Storehouse was built to hold. The gallery there also screens video of the brewery, by prior application.
From Ugo-Honjō Station on the JR Uetsu Main Line, walk north across the Koyoshi River for about 1.5 kilometres, roughly 20 minutes. The city loop bus stops at Okeyachō. Enquiries go to Saiya Shuzōten on 0184-22-0536.
Q&A
- Why does a sake brewery have a building like Saiya Sake Brewery Pickle Storehouse?
- Because sake lees left after pressing make a pickling bed. Curing vegetables in lees used up a by-product and produced winter food for the household. The company still makes narazuke this way.
- How big is Saiya Sake Brewery Pickle Storehouse?
- Twenty square metres, single storey. The west storehouse on the same site covers 372 square metres, so the difference in scale between the buildings is considerable.
- Is Saiya Sake Brewery Pickle Storehouse visible from the street?
- The storehouse itself is not. It shares a covering shed with the bottle storehouse and the former rice storehouse, so the road shows only the outer wall of that shed.
- When was Saiya Sake Brewery Pickle Storehouse registered?
- On 2 September 1998, registration number 05-0018. The building dates from about 1902.
- Can the inside of Saiya Sake Brewery Pickle Storehouse be seen?
- No. It stands in a working brewery whose tours are suspended, so only the exterior is accessible, from the public road.
Basic Information
| Name | Saiya Sake Brewery Pickle Storehouse |
|---|---|
| Location | 53 Ishiwaki, Ishiwaki, Yurihonjo City, Akita Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) |
| Year Designated | 1998 (Heisei 10) |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Single-storey earthen-walled storehouse, floor area 20 square metres |
| Owner | Saiya Shuzoten Co., Ltd. |
| Public Access | Exterior visible from the public road, interior closed |
References
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, National Cultural Properties Database: Saiya Shuzoten Pickle Storehouse
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00000612
- Yurihonjo City: Saiya Shuzoten
- https://www.city.yurihonjo.lg.jp/1001503/1002098/1002113/1002126/1003557.html
- Yurihonjo City Board of Education: Saiya Shuzoten (PDF)
- https://www.city.yurihonjo.lg.jp/_res/projects/default_project/_page_/001/003/557/1003557_002.pdf
- Hakkokoji Taya: Shop (operated by Saiya Shuzoten Co., Ltd.)
- https://hakkokoji-taya.jp/shop/
- Saiya Shuzoten Co., Ltd.: About the brewery
- https://www.yukinobosha.jp/aboutus/
Last verified: 2026.09.08