Ishigami Sake Brewery Document Storehouse

An Earthen Kura That Turns Its Gable to the Street

The Ishigami Sake Brewery Document Storehouse (石上酒造文庫蔵, Ishigami Shuzō Bunkokura) is a two-storey earthen Dozo-zukuri storehouse 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 12-252. The Agency for Cultural Affairs reads the name Bunkokura, while Choshi City gives Bunkogura.

A bunkokura is a storehouse for a family's documents and valuables. The Ishigami Sake Brewery Document Storehouse stands in the northwest corner of the plot with its ridge running north to south. The Agency gives it as 7.7 by 5.9 meters, with 40 square meters of floor area and a door on the east side. Choshi City dates it to the same period as the brewing storehouse and the rice storehouse, and Choshi Jikan, a local heritage guide, says it now serves as a general store room.

Two Windows in the North Gable

The face of the Ishigami Sake Brewery Document Storehouse is its north gable, which fronts the street. A window opens on each side of the upper floor, and the Agency singles these out as the accent of the whole exterior. Framed in the triangle of a Kirizuma-zukuri roof laid with Sangawara-buki tiles, the pair of windows is what catches the eye from the road.

The building sits on a concrete foundation topped with base stones, with Shikkui plaster walls rising from it. According to Choshi City, both floors were boarded and finished in exposed-post Shinkabe plaster. Inside, a board door survives, its wooden frame plastered on the inner face.

Earthquake Repairs, and Why It Was Registered

The 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake broke roof tiles on the Ishigami Sake Brewery Document Storehouse. Choshi City reports that when they were repaired, the plaster walls were also sheathed in Galvalume steel, and the Agency's database records the 2011 work. Much of what you see today is therefore grey metal rather than white plaster; the plaster walls the Agency describes lie underneath.

The Ishigami Sake Brewery Document Storehouse was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape. Of the brewery's buildings, it is the one that meets the street directly, and the Agency's description draws attention to the placement of its gable windows.

Seeing the Ishigami Sake Brewery Document Storehouse

The interior of the Ishigami Sake Brewery Document Storehouse is not open. Because the north gable faces the street, the two upper windows can be seen without entering the grounds; this is a private working brewery, so keep clear of traffic and entrances when you stop to look. Visits inside the grounds are by advance reservation with Ishigami Sake Brewery, and photography rules should be checked when you book.