A Working Miso and Soy Sauce Brewery on the Old Ushu Kaido
The Yamamo Miso and Soy Sauce Brewery (ヤマモ味噌醤油醸造元, Yamamo Miso Shōyu Jōzōmoto) in Iwasaki, Yuzawa City, Akita Prefecture, is a family brewery founded in 1867 whose shop-house, storehouses and workshop, eight buildings dating from 1883 to the early Showa era, became Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 3 December 2024. The site lies on the north side of the old Ushu Kaido highway, and miso and soy sauce are still made inside these buildings.
The founder was Mosuke Takahashi (髙橋茂助). According to the history the brewery publishes, he set up as a branch of the main family in 1860 and began making miso seven years later. Iwasaki had grown as a castle town and post town on river traffic along the Minase, and the brewery has always drawn its brewing water from the river's underground flow. Seven generations on, the business is run by Takamo & Co. (髙茂合名会社).
Several storehouse names are really family names. The Mosuke Storehouse carries the founder's name, the Heisuke Storehouse the childhood name of the second head of the house, and the Hikoshiro Storehouse the name of the fourth. The company chronology records that the founder built a residential storehouse in 1883 and the second generation a household storehouse in 1894, dates that match the Agency for Cultural Affairs records for the Mosuke and Myoken Storehouse and the Heisuke Storehouse. Family history and building history line up, name by name.
The war left its mark too. The brewery's own account says that its tall chimney and large storehouses risked drawing air raids, so the buildings were painted black to keep them inconspicuous while production went on.
Why Eight Buildings Were Listed Together
The eight buildings were recommended by the Council for Cultural Affairs on 19 July 2024 and entered on the register on 3 December the same year, under the consecutive numbers 05-0251 to 05-0258. The recommendation introduces the Yamamo Miso and Soy Sauce Brewery as a still-operating brewery facing south onto the old highway, and describes the eight structures as one ensemble.
Two different criteria were applied. The Heisuke Storehouse and the Mosuke and Myoken Storehouse, both domestic storehouses wrapped entirely in a protective timber sheath, were listed as models of design, a judgement that credits the skill of local carpenters. The other six, the shop-house on the street and the storehouses and workshop that carry out the brewing, were listed for their contribution to the historic landscape.
Put the buildings in date order and you can watch the site grow. First came the Mosuke and Myoken Storehouse in 1883, then the Heisuke Storehouse in 1894, then the shop-house and the brewing storehouse in the middle Meiji years. The moromi storehouse followed in the early Taisho era and the workshop in the late Taisho era; the vinegar storehouse and the Hikoshiro Storehouse across the road date from early Showa. Meiji saw the house and its strongrooms completed, and from Taisho onward the additions were production buildings.
Yuzawa City presents the eight together and treats them as surviving examples of historic brewery and factory architecture. Sources vary between the modern character 醤 and the older form 醬 in the brewery's name; both refer to the same group.
How the Site Is Laid Out
Moving back from the street, the Yamamo buildings run from house to storehouses to brewery. The shop-house faces south onto the old Ushu Kaido. Behind it to the north stands the Heisuke Storehouse, and in the middle of the plot the Mosuke and Myoken Storehouse. These two are inner storehouses (uchigura) attached to the life of the household: one held its possessions, the other at times housed people.
The northern part of the plot is given over to brewing. In the northwest is the brewing storehouse where koji is grown and batches are started, with the vinegar storehouse just to its west in the northwest corner. The moromi storehouse, where soy sauce ferments and matures, takes the northeast corner. Linking them at the centre is the workshop, where soy sauce is heated, filtered and bottled. The sequence from mash to bottle can be followed on the ground, building by building.
Only the Hikoshiro Storehouse stands apart, on a corner lot across the road to the west. That is why its address is 134 Iwasaki rather than the 124 Iwasaki shared by the other seven.
Not part of the listing but part of the site is the garden Senshitsuen (辿柒園), laid out in 1929. The factory tour described below passes through it.
Visiting and Getting There
The Yamamo Miso and Soy Sauce Brewery is privately owned and in daily use. The only way into the storehouses and workshop is the factory tour run by the brewery. Tours must be booked by the day before, can be taken by a single person, last about an hour and cost 5,500 yen. The route covers the factory store, the hall in the Heisuke Storehouse, the garden, the factory floor, the brewing storehouse and the moromi storehouse, with a tasting of miso aged for different lengths of time. There are also combinations with a meal, and the evening course goes into the Myoken Storehouse (checked on the official site, 25 September 2026).
Because the tour enters working storehouses, visitors are asked not to eat natto on the morning of their visit, to avoid upsetting the microbes that live in the buildings. Photography is generally allowed during the tour, though some spots are off limits.
The shop and café need no booking; the café is open from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and closes on irregular days. The shop-house and the Hikoshiro Storehouse can be seen from the old highway. To see the storehouses at the back up close, you need to join a tour.
By rail, walk 15 to 16 minutes from Shimo-Yuzawa Station on the JR Ou Line; from Jumonji Station a taxi takes about 10 minutes. There is parking on site. Enquiries: 0183-73-2902.
References
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, Database of National Cultural Properties: Yamamo Miso and Soy Sauce Brewery Shop and Main House
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00015123
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, Database of National Cultural Properties: Heisuke Storehouse
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00015124
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, Database of National Cultural Properties: Mosuke Storehouse and Myoken Storehouse
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00015125
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, Database of National Cultural Properties: Hikoshiro Storehouse
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00015126
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, Database of National Cultural Properties: Brewing Storehouse
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00015127
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, Database of National Cultural Properties: Moromi Storehouse
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00015128
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, Database of National Cultural Properties: Vinegar Storehouse
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00015129
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, Database of National Cultural Properties: Workshop
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00015130
- Agency for Cultural Affairs: Council for Cultural Affairs recommendations, 19 July 2024 (Registered Tangible Cultural Properties, structures)
- https://www.bunka.go.jp/koho_hodo_oshirase/hodohappyo/pdf/94084201_01.pdf
- Yuzawa City: Yamamo Miso and Soy Sauce Brewery Shop and Main House and seven other buildings
- https://www.city-yuzawa.jp/site/bunkazai/6175.html
- YAMAMO / TAKAMO & Corp.: Company
- https://yamamo1867.com/company/
- YAMAMO / TAKAMO & Corp.: History
- https://yamamo1867.com/history/
- YAMAMO / TAKAMO & Corp.: Restaurant and Tour
- https://yamamo1867.com/plan/
- Akita Fermentation Tourism: Yamamo Miso and Soy Sauce Brewery
- https://hakko.akita-kenmin.jp/kamoshidokoro/424
Last verified: 2026.09.25
Basic Information
| Name | Yamamo Miso and Soy Sauce Brewery |
|---|---|
| Location | 124 Iwasaki, Yuzawa City, Akita Prefecture |
| Owner | Private |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Properties (8) |
| Coordinates | 39.20627, 140.51021 |
