Yasumoto Sake Brewery Rice Storehouse

The Oldest Building on the Lot

The Yasumoto Sake Brewery Rice Storehouse (安本酒造米蔵, Yasumoto Shuzō Komegura) is a storehouse for brewing rice built in 1888 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 combines a 2-storey Dozo-zukuri earthen storehouse with a 1-storey wooden shed, was altered in the late Meiji period, and has a tiled roof over a building area of 45 square meters.

It is the oldest of the brewery's ten listed structures, a year older than the store and main house. The brewery compound, in other words, began with a place to keep the rice.

A Plastered Store and a Ventilated Shed

According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs, the Yasumoto Sake Brewery Rice Storehouse stands in the northwest corner of the lot, next to the store and main house on its west side. The two-storey earthen store runs north to south, its upper walls finished in white Shikkui plaster and pierced by small windows. The roof is carried on Nobori-bari, sloping beams that rise from the walls toward the ridge.

The single-storey shed is attached on the east side. It has a gabled roof in pantiles, topped by a Koshi-yane, a small raised roof along the ridge that lets light and air into the space below.

Two rooflines of different heights meet at the corner of the old road, and that pairing is the building's signature: a tall plastered store with small windows and, tucked against it, a low shed carrying its raised ridge vent.

Anchoring the Street Corner

The Yasumoto Sake Brewery Rice Storehouse is registered as number 18-0125 for its contribution to the historic landscape; the Agency notes specifically that it adds to the historic character of the old road.

The northwest corner marks the western end of the brewery's frontage. The row that continues east along the road, first the store and main house and then the front gate, begins here.

Seeing the Rice Storehouse

Because the Yasumoto Sake Brewery Rice Storehouse sits on the corner of a lot facing the old road, its exterior can be seen from the street. Viewed from the western end of the frontage, it is easier to see how the plastered upper walls of the store and the raised vent of the shed overlap.

The interior is not open, and the brewery does not run tours. Stay off the grounds and photograph from the public road.