The Smallest of the Five
The Nambu Shuzojo Rice Storehouse (南部酒造場米蔵, also romanised Nanbu Shuzōjō Komegura) is a two-storey earthen-walled store of 1889 in Motomachi, Ono City, Fukui Prefecture, registered as a national Tangible Cultural Property (Structure) on 20 November 2001. At 41 square metres it is by a wide margin the smallest of the five buildings registered on this brewery lot, and the last of them in the sequence of registration numbers.
Size is the point rather than a limitation. A brewery of this scale did not need a cathedral for its grain; it needed a dry, cool, defensible box near the working end of the yard. The Agency for Cultural Affairs records a plan of five ken along the ridge by two ken across, one ken being roughly 1.8 metres, giving a narrow rectangle set with its ridge running east and west and entered through the gable end.
It stands north of the West Storehouse, its ridge turned at right angles to that building, and the official description notes that it is one size smaller than its neighbour. Under the eaves run hozue, the angled struts that appear across the storehouses of this district and give them their common silhouette.
One inconsistency in the record should be stated plainly. The structural summary field lists a tile roof, while the descriptive text on the same Agency for Cultural Affairs page specifies sheet iron. The two entries have not been reconciled, and the same divergence appears on the neighbouring West Storehouse. Anyone checking the roof on site should expect the possibility that either reading is out of date.
An Entrance onto the Back Drain
The detail that repays attention is where the second doorway opens. Besides the entrance on the yard side, the Rice Storehouse has a door onto the sewari gesui, the drainage channel running along the western edge of the plot.
Castle-town blocks in Ono were laid out from about 1576 under Kanamori Nagachika, six streets north to south and six east to west, on a grid modelled loosely on Kyoto. Merchant plots ran deep from the street, and behind them, down the spine of each block, ran a shared drain. That back line was working infrastructure: drainage, water access, and a service route out of sight of the shopfront. A rice store with a door onto it is a store designed to be loaded and unloaded away from the customer side of the business.
Rice matters here for reasons beyond storage. Ono sits in one of Japan's significant producing districts for Gohyakumangoku, a variety favoured for brewing, and the town's water is well known; the Oshozu spring is counted among the country's hundred famous waters. The brewery draws on the same aquifer. A rice store, a water source and a brewing hall inside a few hundred metres is the whole logic of a provincial sake house set out in the ground plan.
Registration came under number 18-0021 in the thirty-first round, on the criterion of contribution to the historic landscape of the country. The shop, Front Storehouse and Great Storehouse were listed the same day under that criterion as well; the West Storehouse was listed on a different one, that of being difficult to reproduce.
Visiting the Site
Be realistic about sightlines. The Rice Storehouse sits deep in a private lot behind the shop, and it is the hardest of the five to see properly. There is no interior access and no advertised tour. Visitors should not enter the yard to look for an angle.
What works is to treat the block as a whole. Start at the corner of Shichiken-dori and Yonban-dori where the shop building stands, walk south along Yonban-dori for the east gable of the Great Storehouse, and continue around. The Hanagaki retail shop inside the registered shop building is open 9:00 to 17:00, generally closed Wednesdays with exceptions during holidays and the busy months, and from 31 December to 5 January. Ask there before attempting anything more.
Photography from public streets is unrestricted. Photography inside the shop needs a word with staff first.
JR Echizen-Ono Station on the Etsumi-Hoku Line lies about ten minutes away on foot; use the Motomachi car park if driving. Through 2026, Shichiken-dori is being resurfaced and the Shichiken morning market has been moved temporarily to the Jokamachi Higashi open space from 1 June until late October, the end date depending on progress. When it is running on its own street, the market operates daily from the spring equinox to 31 December, roughly 7:00 to 11:00, and its four centuries of continuity make a useful frame for looking at the buildings around it.
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Q&A
- How old is the Nambu Shuzojo Rice Storehouse?
- The Agency for Cultural Affairs dates it to 1889, the twenty-second year of Meiji. It was registered as a national Tangible Cultural Property on 20 November 2001, with public notice on 4 December of that year.
- Can visitors see or enter the Nambu Shuzojo Rice Storehouse?
- There is no interior access and no advertised tour. The building sits deep within a private brewery lot and is the least visible of the five registered structures. The Hanagaki retail shop at the north end of the lot is open to the public.
- How big is the Nambu Shuzojo Rice Storehouse?
- One building of 41 square metres, two storeys, earthen-walled construction. Its plan is five ken along the ridge by two ken across, making it the smallest of the five registered buildings on the site and one size smaller than the adjacent West Storehouse.
- What is the roof of the Nambu Shuzojo Rice Storehouse made of?
- The Agency for Cultural Affairs record is internally inconsistent: the structural summary states tile, while the descriptive text on the same page states sheet iron. The same discrepancy appears in the record for the neighbouring West Storehouse, and it has not been resolved.
- Why does the Nambu Shuzojo Rice Storehouse have a door on its western side?
- It opens onto the sewari gesui, the drainage channel running along the back edge of the block. In Ono's castle-town layout this back line served as a service route, so goods could be moved in and out without crossing the shop frontage.
- How does the Nambu Shuzojo Rice Storehouse relate to the other registered buildings?
- It stands north of the West Storehouse with its ridge at right angles. Five buildings on the lot were registered together on 20 November 2001 under numbers 18-0017 to 18-0021: the shop, Front Storehouse, Great Storehouse, West Storehouse and this Rice Storehouse.
Basic Information
| Name | Nambu Shuzojo Rice Storehouse (南部酒造場米蔵) |
|---|---|
| Location | Motomachi 6-9 to 6-10, Ono City, Fukui Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure); registration number 18-0021; criterion: contribution to the historic landscape of the country |
| Year Designated | Registered 20 November 2001; public notice 4 December 2001 (31st round) |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Earthen-walled construction, two storeys; building area 41 square metres; five ken along the ridge by two ken across, east-west ridge, gable entry; built 1889. Roofing recorded inconsistently as tile in one field and sheet iron in another. |
| Owner | Nambu Shuzojo Co., Ltd. (private; the Agency for Cultural Affairs database leaves the owner field unpublished) |
| Public Access | Not open to the public and only partially visible from surrounding streets. The Hanagaki retail shop on the same lot is open 9:00 to 17:00, generally closed Wednesdays and 31 December to 5 January. |
References
- Agency for Cultural Affairs — National Cultural Properties Database: Nambu Shuzojo Rice Storehouse
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00002540
- Agency for Cultural Affairs — National Cultural Properties Database: Nambu Shuzojo West Storehouse
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00002539
- Hanagaki (Nambu Shuzojo) — Company History
- https://www.hanagaki.co.jp/about/history
- Echizen Ono Tourism Guide — Nambu Shuzojo (Hanagaki)
- https://www.ono-kankou.jp/spot/南部酒造場（花垣）/
- Ono City — Temporary Relocation of the Shichiken Morning Market
- https://www.city.ono.fukui.jp/kanko/kanko-joho/kanko_oyakudati/sangyo00120260521.html
Last verified: 2026.08.05