Ishigami Sake Brewery Brewing Storehouse (Moromi Storehouse)

Two Storeys of Ōya Stone Where the Mash Ferments

The Ishigami Sake Brewery Brewing Storehouse (Moromi Storehouse) (石上酒造仕込蔵（醪蔵）, Ishigami Shuzō Shikomigura, also Moromigura) is a two-storey Ōya stone brewing hall built around 1902 at Ishigami Sake Brewery in Tanaka-cho, Choshi City, Chiba Prefecture, and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 27 March 2018 under number 12-250.

The Ishigami Sake Brewery Brewing Storehouse fills the southwest corner of the plot, with the storage warehouse built against its north side. The Agency for Cultural Affairs lists it as a two-storey stone building with a tiled roof and 86 square meters of floor area. Its second name explains its job. Moromi is the fermenting mash, and here, Choshi City says, koji rice, water and Shubo yeast starter go into enamel-lined tanks to ferment for about 3 weeks.

Timber Posts Inside Stone Walls

What makes the Ishigami Sake Brewery Brewing Storehouse worth a close look is the way stone and timber share the work. The outer walls are coursed Ōya stone under a Kirizuma-zukuri gable roof laid with Sangawara-buki tiles. But the stone does not carry the roof. According to the Agency, a raised base on the ground floor supports timber posts set just inside the walls, and those posts hold up a Queen post truss.

A queen post truss uses two vertical posts instead of one central king post, leaving a wide clear span in the middle, a Western roof frame that Japanese builders took up in the Meiji era. Both floors of the Ishigami Sake Brewery Brewing Storehouse are single open rooms, with no posts cluttering the space where tanks stand. Stone buffers the outside weather, and a timber skeleton spans the roof.

Alterations, Earthquake Repairs and Registration

Choshi City notes that part of the upper storey of the Ishigami Sake Brewery Brewing Storehouse shows signs of being added later, and that the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake broke its Onigawara and ridge tiles, after which the whole roof was relaid. Even so, the building is used much as it was when new, and the city values it as a record of Meiji-era brewing in Choshi.

It was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape. The Agency describes the Ishigami Sake Brewery Brewing Storehouse as one of the core buildings of the brewing business.

Seeing the Ishigami Sake Brewery Brewing Storehouse

The Ishigami Sake Brewery Brewing Storehouse is a working fermentation hall and is not open on a regular basis. Tours and tastings at Ishigami Sake Brewery are by advance reservation, so ask when you book whether the brewing hall is part of the tour. If you do get in, look up at the timber posts standing clear of the stone and the truss they carry. Photography rules are not published; check those in advance as well.