Mogi Honke Residence

The House of a Noda Soy Sauce Dynasty

The Mogi Honke Residence (茂木本家住宅, Mogi Honke Jūtaku) in Noda, Chiba Prefecture, is the estate of the Mogi Shichizaemon family, the senior line of Noda's soy sauce brewing Mogi clan, and its 13 structures, centred on a main house completed in 1926, were entered on the national register as Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 15 January 2010. Honke means "head house", the branch from which the other Mogi households descend.

The family has brewed soy sauce in Noda since the Edo period. According to Kikkoman's own company history, the Mogi Shichizaemon line was one of seven families that formed the town's brewers' guild, and in 1688 it gave rise to the Mogi Saheiji branch, whose tortoise-shell mark, Kikkoman, later became the name of the whole enterprise. In 1917 the Mogi and Takanashi families pooled their breweries to found Noda Shoyu, the company now known as Kikkoman Corporation.

The present house was built after the Great Kanto Earthquake by the 11th Mogi Shichizaemon, who commissioned the architect Sato Ryokichi, trained in the tradition of temple and shrine carpenters. Noda City notes that almost every building from that time survives and that no other house keeps the full set of elements of an early Showa soy brewer's home so completely.

Thirteen Structures and Their Dates

The registration numbers run without a break, 12-0126 through 12-0138. Grouped by use, the estate comprises:

• The residence: the Main House
• Fireproof storehouses: the North and South Storehouses
• Working stores: the Former Brewing, Rice and Pickle Storehouses
• Gates and gatekeeping: the Main Gate, the Former Gatekeeper's Lodge, and the Garden Gate with its bamboo fence
• Perimeter walls: the Board Fence and the Brick Wall
• The household shrine: the Inari Shrine and its Water Pavilion

Most date from 1926, but not all. The Inari Shrine and its water pavilion are the oldest, dated to 1808, 118 years before the main house. The Former Brewing Storehouse belongs to the early Taisho era and was renovated in 2003, and the Board Fence was repaired in 2004. The youngest piece is the Brick Wall, from the early Showa era.

Sources count them differently. The Agency for Cultural Affairs database lists the Board Fence, the Water Pavilion and the Brick Wall as structures and the other ten as buildings; Chiba Prefecture gives eleven buildings and two structures. Only the Main House was registered as a model of design, with the other twelve registered for their contribution to the historic landscape. The Brick Wall is also recognised by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry as a Heritage of Industrial Modernization.

How the Estate Is Laid Out

Everything at the Mogi Honke Residence turns on the main house. A garden opens to its south, the two earthen storehouses stand at right angles to its east, the Former Brewing and Rice Storehouses lie to the west, and the Former Pickle Storehouse and gatekeeper's lodge sit to the north.

The formal entrance is the Main Gate, set toward the west end of the northern boundary. Inside, the lodge and the rice storehouse hold the front, and the long brewing storehouse lines the west side of the drive leading to the carriage porch. A garden gate and bamboo fence run west from the south-west corner of the house, dividing that drive from the garden.

Along the streets on the north and east, a board fence 96 metres long begins at the east end of the pickle storehouse. The Inari Shrine occupies its own enclosure in the north-west corner, and a brick wall 26 metres long wraps its north and east sides beside the road. Black persimmon-tannin boards and red brick meet along the edge of the property.

Visiting and Getting There

The Mogi Honke Residence is still the owner's family home, and Noda City states that the interior cannot be visited. There is no access to the grounds. What you can see from the street is the Main Gate, the Brick Wall and the Board Fence; the walking map published by the Noda City Museum lists the same three as visible from outside. Please do not photograph through gaps in the gate or fence into the house.

The nearest bus stop is Kikkoman-mae, served by the city's Mame Bus community routes 9 (Atago), 11 (South Loop) and 12 (New South), and by Ibaraki Kyuko (Ikyu) buses, some of which run from Noda-shi Station on the Tobu Urban Park Line. The residence is about a 5-minute walk from the stop. Enquiries go to the Lifelong Learning Division of Noda City (tel. 04-7123-1366).