Ishigami Sake Brewery Storage Warehouse

The Largest of the Stone Kura, Where Sake Is Pressed and Stored

The Ishigami Sake Brewery Storage Warehouse (石上酒造貯蔵蔵, Ishigami Shuzō Chozōgura) is an Ōya stone stone brewery building of around 1902 at Ishigami Sake Brewery in Tanaka-cho, Choshi City, Chiba Prefecture, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 27 March 2018 under number 12-251. Choshi City's own list of cultural properties also writes the name as Chozōko.

Built against the north side of the brewing storehouse, the Ishigami Sake Brewery Storage Warehouse measures 18.5 by 7.9 meters, with 146 square meters of floor area, making it the largest of the five registered buildings. Choshi City says finished sake is stored here and the fermented mash is pressed here to draw off the raw sake, and the building is still in use for both. The Agency for Cultural Affairs notes that its earth-floored interior holds the press and the brewing tanks.

Coursed Stone and a King Post Truss

The walls of the Ishigami Sake Brewery Storage Warehouse are Ōya stone laid lengthwise. Choshi City describes the stone faces as dressed with two kinds of tooled finish, which it calls tsurume and kobori, and notes that the building is entered at the gable end (Tsumairi), where the stone rises unbroken to the roofline. The difference in surface texture shows best up close.

The roof is a Kirizuma-zukuri gable laid with Sangawara-buki tiles over a King post truss, a Western frame with a single central post. Next door, the brewing storehouse uses a queen post truss, so the two stone halls show both types side by side. Inside is a single earth-floored room. Choshi City describes the building as single-storey with a partial upper floor, a slight difference from the Agency's single-storey entry.

Kurohae Tiles, Found Only on the Ishigami Sake Brewery Storage Warehouse

The Ishigami Sake Brewery Storage Warehouse has not been substantially altered. Choshi City points out that it is the only one of the Ishigami family's historic buildings roofed with Kurohae tiles, a roof tile particular to Choshi. According to Choshi Jikan, a local heritage guide, a lightly colored picture map of Choshi's famous places records tile-making here by the Tenmei era (1781 to 1789), and only a handful of buildings in the city still carry these tiles.

The building was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape. The Agency calls the Ishigami Sake Brewery Storage Warehouse one of the core buildings of the brewery, and Choshi City adds that it matters as a record of how such buildings were made.

Seeing the Ishigami Sake Brewery Storage Warehouse

The Ishigami Sake Brewery Storage Warehouse is still where the brewery presses and stores its sake, and it is not open on a regular basis. Tours and tastings at Ishigami Sake Brewery are by advance reservation, so ask when you book what the tour covers and whether photography is allowed. If you are shown round, look for the Kurohae tiles on the roof and for the stone gable wall climbing straight up to the ridge.