Yasumoto Sake Brewery Brewing Storehouse 1

A Long Storehouse from Polishing to Mashing

The Yasumoto Sake Brewery Brewing Storehouse 1 (安本酒造仕込蔵一, Yasumoto Shuzō Shikomigura Ichi) is a brewing storehouse built in 1889 at Yasumoto Sake Brewery in Yasuhara-cho, Fukui City, Fukui Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on March 26, 2015. It was altered in 1937. The tiled building combines single-storey sections in wood and in Dozo-zukuri earthen construction with a 2-storey earthen storehouse, and at 205 square meters of building area it is the largest of the brewery's ten listed structures.

It went up in the same year as the store and main house, so it has been at the working heart of the brewery from the beginning.

Polishing, Steaming and Mashing in One Range

According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs, the Yasumoto Sake Brewery Brewing Storehouse 1 lies east of the store and main house and runs a long way from north to south behind the front gate, with the chimney between them. From north to south it contained the old rice-polishing room, the old rice-steaming room and the mashing hall.

Rice is polished, steamed, combined with koji and set to ferment in tanks: the first half of sake making is laid out in order inside one building, moving from north to south. The brick chimney standing just north of the storehouse served the firebox in the steaming room.

The mashing hall at the south end is a two-storey earthen storehouse, with storage tanks on the ground floor and a Kojimuro upstairs, the warm, heavily insulated room where mould is grown on steamed rice to make koji. Putting the koji room on the warmer upper floor and the tanks below is the logic the section of the building follows.

The exterior walls are finished in white Shikkui plaster above a dado of Shitami-itabari clapboarding, and the long run of white wall over dark boards gives the building its brewery character.

Why It Was Registered

The Yasumoto Sake Brewery Brewing Storehouse 1 is registered as number 18-0127, for its contribution to the historic landscape; the Agency describes it as one of the storehouses that shape the look of the brewery.

The pressing house is joined to its south end, where the fermented mash was pressed. Taken together, the two buildings carry a single line of production down the eastern side of the lot.

Seeing Brewing Storehouse 1

The Yasumoto Sake Brewery Brewing Storehouse 1 stands behind the front gate. Its north end may be glimpsed through the gateway, but the Agency's descriptions do not indicate any public road from which its long side can be seen.

The brewery offers no tours or tastings, and the interior is not open. Please do not pass through the gate; view what you can from the old road.