The largest building on the plot
Saiya Sake Brewery West Storehouse (斎彌酒造店西蔵) 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.
At 372 square metres it is the biggest of the eleven registered structures here, more than twenty times the 17 square metres of the bottle storehouse. Its plan is long and narrow with the ridge running north to south, and it stands north of the kettle house at the deepest point of the site. The roof is tiled.
Inside, tanks for sake stand in ranks. This was equipment of the period when metal tanks were replacing wooden casks, so Saiya Sake Brewery West Storehouse amounts to modern vessels housed inside an old kind of container: thick earthen walls outside, industrial plant within.
Built when output was rising
Registration as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property came on 2 September 1998, number 05-0022, for contribution to the historic character of the landscape.
National records treat this storehouse and the kettle house as a pair. Both were put up as production increased, which sets them apart from the buildings that date to the founding of the brewery in 1902. Enlarge the place where rice is steamed and you must enlarge the place where the finished sake sits. The figure of 372 square metres can be read as a measure of how far the volume handled by this house had grown.
Industrial buildings fall within the registration system precisely because they preserve the movement of a local economy in concrete dimensions. Ledgers get lost; floor areas do not.
The ridge and the slope
The north-south orientation of the ridge repays attention. The site climbs the foot of Mount Shinzan through about six metres of fall, and the ground drops southward toward the road, so north to south is the direction of the gradient. Laying the long side of a very large building along the slope lets it sit on terraced ground without a fight.
Across the whole compound, brewing starts at the rice-polishing house at the highest point and works its way down. The brewery calls this arrangement a nobori-gura, an uphill brewery; the company records that Koizumi Takeo of Tokyo University of Agriculture coined the term by analogy with the climbing kilns used for pottery. Saiya Sake Brewery West Storehouse belongs to the upper reach of that sequence.
What the road shows is the south face of the compound, and this storehouse is almost entirely hidden behind the buildings in front of it. Even so, standing on the street knowing that 372 square metres of earthen storehouse lies stretched out behind them changes how deep the property feels.
Visiting
Saiya Sake Brewery West Storehouse is in active use for storage and is not open. With the brewery tours of Saiya Shuzōten suspended there is no opportunity to go in, and its position at the back of the plot makes it hard to see from the road at all. The grounds are private, and entering or photographing there requires the company's permission.
Hakkōkōji Taya, the brewery's shop and cafe, is opposite and opens 10:00 to 17:00, closed Thursdays and Sundays. Its gallery shows video of the brewery to visitors who apply in advance. For a building as invisible from outside as Saiya Sake Brewery West Storehouse, that video is currently the only way to see the interior.
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.
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Q&A
- How large is Saiya Sake Brewery West Storehouse?
- 372 square metres, the largest of the eleven registered structures. The smallest, the bottle storehouse, covers 17 square metres.
- What is inside Saiya Sake Brewery West Storehouse?
- Ranks of tanks for sake. The building pairs an old construction method, thick earthen walls, with modern production equipment.
- Why does the ridge of Saiya Sake Brewery West Storehouse run north to south?
- Because the site falls about six metres from north to south toward the road. Aligning the long axis with the gradient allows a very large building to sit on terraced ground.
- When was Saiya Sake Brewery West Storehouse built and registered?
- In the early Shōwa era, from 1926 onwards, at the same period as the kettle house, when output was increasing. Registration followed on 2 September 1998, number 05-0022.
- Can Saiya Sake Brewery West Storehouse be seen by visitors?
- Not really. It is a working store, tours are suspended, and its position at the back of the site keeps it out of view from the public road.
Basic Information
| Name | Saiya Sake Brewery West 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 372 square metres |
| Owner | Saiya Shuzoten Co., Ltd. |
| Public Access | Closed to the public, difficult to see from outside the grounds |
References
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, National Cultural Properties Database: Saiya Shuzoten West Storehouse
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00000616
- 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
- Saiya Shuzoten Co., Ltd.: About the brewery
- https://www.yukinobosha.jp/aboutus/
- Hakkokoji Taya, operated by Saiya Shuzoten Co., Ltd.
- https://hakkokoji-taya.jp/
Last verified: 2026.09.08