Yamakichi Miso and Soy Sauce Brewery

A Working Miso and Soy Sauce Brewery on Ishiwaki Street

Yamakichi Miso and Soy Sauce Brewery (ヤマキチ味噌醤油醸造元, Yamakichi Miso Shōyu Jōzōmoto) is a miso and soy sauce maker in Ishiwaki, Yurihonjo City, Akita Prefecture, founded in 1917, whose five buildings, dating from around 1916 to the mid-Showa period, were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties of Japan on February 27, 2023. The main house, shop, storehouse and two factory wings line up behind Ishiwaki Street, and the family still brews here.

Ishiwaki sits on the right bank of the Koyoshi River. Before railways, its river harbor was a port of call for the Kitamaebune, the coastal cargo ships that linked the Sea of Japan ports with Osaka. Yurihonjo City notes that brewers along Ishiwaki Street drew on spring water from Mount Shinzan, a hill about 140 meters high rising behind the town. Soybeans and rice came in by boat, the water was good, and so the street filled with breweries. Yamakichi is one of the district's miso and soy sauce makers that are still working.

The company dates its founding to 1917, when it began making miso, and it added soy sauce in 1920. The family's roots on the site go back further. Before the end of the Edo period they were already running a koji shop here, producing the mold-cultured rice that starts every miso and soy sauce ferment, and the Yamakichi trademark is that old koji shop's house name.

This explains a small puzzle in the records. The main house, shop and storehouse are dated to around 1916, a year before the brewery's official founding. They were built for the koji business that came first.

Why the Five Buildings Were Registered Together

On November 18, 2022, the Council for Cultural Affairs recommended 109 buildings nationwide for Registered Tangible Cultural Property status, Yamakichi's five among them. Registration followed on February 27, 2023, under consecutive numbers running from 05-0235 for the main house to 05-0239 for the factory east wing.

All five were listed under the same criterion: buildings that contribute to the historic landscape of the country. The council's summary reads them as one ensemble, a brewer's merchant compound in an old river-harbor town, and credits it with preserving the layout of a brewing household and giving the street a distinctly regional character. The value lies less in any single building than in the full set surviving together, from street front to back lot.

Put the dates in order and you can watch the site grow. The main house, shop and storehouse were in place by around 1916. The factory west wing followed in the early Showa period (1926 to 1945), and the factory east wing in 1957, with an extension in 1963. The storehouse was moved to its present spot in the mid-Showa period. Taisho-era merchant buildings face the street, and Showa-era production buildings fill in behind them.

According to Akita Prefecture, these five registrations brought the prefecture's total of registered buildings to 210.

How the Site Is Laid Out

At Yamakichi Miso and Soy Sauce Brewery, living and selling happen at the front and brewing at the back. The main house and shop face Ishiwaki Street. The main house is set back from the road behind a small garden, and the shop stands to its west, joined to the middle of the main house's west wall.

A two-story storehouse for household goods stands northeast of the main house and connects to it. The two factory wings occupy the northern part of the lot, behind the house. Inside the shop, an earthen-floored passage about 20 meters long runs from the street toward the back, and people and goods moving between the street, the house and the factories all pass through it.

The contrast in style is easy to spot. The street-front house and shop are Japanese merchant buildings, while the factories behind them take a Western approach. Yurihonjo City points to the mortar decoration of triangles and rectangles on the front wall of the factory west wing as one example.

Visiting and Getting There

Yamakichi Miso and Soy Sauce Brewery is a privately run, working business, and the buildings are not open for casual walk-in viewing. The main house, with its heavy timbered gable end, and the shop can be seen from Ishiwaki Street. The storehouse and both factory wings sit deeper in the lot and cannot be taken in from the front.

Akita Prefecture's fermentation tourism site lists brewery visits by reservation. Bookings are taken by phone on weekdays from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., the date and time are arranged around your request, and groups are capped at 15 people. The highlight it names is a row of wooden vats more than 2 meters deep. Ask when booking which buildings are included and whether photography is allowed (checked September 28, 2026). Phone: 0184-22-0041. The booking details are published in Japanese only.

The nearest station is Ugo-Honjo, served by the JR Uetsu Line and the Yuri Kogen Railway. The brewery gives the trip as about 10 minutes by car. On foot the route crosses the Koyoshi River to the north and takes a little over 20 minutes by map routing. Yurihonjo City includes the brewery on its "History and Culture Walk" and publishes an English explanation of the site.