Ishigami Sake Brewery

A Stone-Built Sake Brewery in Choshi, Founded by Tradition in 1844

Ishigami Sake Brewery (石上酒造, Ishigami Shuzō) is a sake brewery in Tanaka-cho, Choshi City, Chiba Prefecture, said to have been founded in 1844, whose five Meiji-era buildings (the rice storehouse, koji room, brewing storehouse, storage warehouse and document storehouse) were registered together as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on 27 March 2018. The brewery makes the sake sold as Choshi no Homare, a name that, according to the Choshi tourism association, plays on the word choshi, a type of sake flask, and on the name of the town itself.

The Choshi City Board of Education traces the family business to Ishigami Shinto, named as the first head in documents found inside the storehouses and dated to 1844. Ishigami Sake Brewery was never only a brewery. Alongside sake and grain dealing, the family raised pigs, took part in building a harbor at Ashikajima, set up a fertilizer company and traded in pressed fish meal and fish oil, all trades tied to Choshi's life as a fishing port. The current head is the fifth generation.

Air raids in the Second World War left central Choshi largely burned out. Ishigami Sake Brewery took some damage but did not burn, which is why a full set of Meiji buildings still stands on one plot.

The Five Registered Buildings of Ishigami Sake Brewery

All five were registered in the 89th round of registrations under numbers 12-248 to 12-252. The Agency for Cultural Affairs database dates them as follows.

• Rice Storehouse (Komegura): mid-Meiji period. An earthen Dozo-zukuri storehouse with a Namako-kabe lower wall.
• Koji Room (Kōjimuro): around 1896. A chamber of Ōya stone masonry lined with cedar boards and insulated with rice husks.
• Brewing Storehouse (Shikomigura, also called Moromigura): around 1902. Two storeys of Ōya stone, where the fermenting mash is kept.
• Storage Warehouse (Chozōgura): around 1902. Also Ōya stone, and the largest of the five at 146 square meters.
• Document Storehouse (Bunkokura): around 1902. A two-storey earthen storehouse in the northwest corner of the plot.

The dating varies slightly by source. The Chiba Prefectural Board of Education places all five in the mid-Meiji period, while Choshi City describes the rice storehouse as standing by 1902 and the document storehouse as contemporary with it. Only the koji room was registered under the criterion of being a model of form; the other four were registered for their contribution to the historic landscape.

Stone is what sets Ishigami Sake Brewery apart. Most Japanese breweries are walled in clay and plaster, but three of these buildings are built of Ōya stone, a porous tuff quarried in Tochigi Prefecture. Chiba's official tourism site says the stone's many air pockets help keep the temperature inside steady when the weather outside changes. The Choshi tourism association notes that the brewery itself calls its two stone brewing halls the Meiji-gura and the Taisho-gura.

How the Ishigami Sake Brewery Buildings Sit on the Plot

Reading the positions from the Agency's descriptions, the street runs along the north side of the plot. The document storehouse stands in the northwest corner, its gable end facing the street. South of it, along the west edge, come the storage warehouse and then the brewing storehouse, which fills the southwest corner. The koji room sits toward the south, and the rice storehouse marks the southeast end of the group.

The easiest way to make sense of Ishigami Sake Brewery is to follow the sake. Rice is stored and polished in the rice storehouse, steamed rice is inoculated with koji mold in the koji room, the mash ferments in the brewing storehouse, and the finished sake is pressed and stored in the storage warehouse. The document storehouse is used today as a general store room. The member list on this page follows that order.

The Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011 broke the ridge tiles and the Onigawara of the brewing storehouse, and the whole roof was relaid. The Agency database also records 2011 alterations to the rice storehouse and the document storehouse, and both now have steel sheeting over parts of their walls.

Visiting Ishigami Sake Brewery: Reservations Required

Ishigami Sake Brewery is a working brewery, and none of the five buildings is open on a regular basis. Choshi City lists public access as by prior consultation, and both the Choshi tourism association and Chiba's tourism site say brewery tours and tastings must be booked in advance. Bookings go to the brewery directly by telephone (0479-22-0655).

The tourism association gives business hours of 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., closed on Sundays and national holidays. No published source states a tour fee, a tour length or whether photography is allowed, so ask about all three when you book.

Getting to Ishigami Sake Brewery

The nearest stations are on the small Choshi Electric Railway, which starts from JR Choshi Station. The tourism association puts Ishigami Sake Brewery about 10 minutes on foot from either Kannon or Motochoshi station.

By bus, take a service bound for Kawaguchi and Port Center from stop 4 outside JR Choshi Station and get off at Tanaka-cho; the brewery is right by the stop. By car it is about 6 minutes from JR Choshi Station, or about 60 minutes from the Sawara-Katori interchange on the Higashi-Kanto Expressway. Chiba's tourism site lists free parking for 4 cars.