Yasumoto Sake Brewery Brewing Storehouse 2

A 1908 Brewing Storehouse on a Single Post

The Yasumoto Sake Brewery Brewing Storehouse 2 (安本酒造仕込蔵二, Yasumoto Shuzō Shikomigura Ni) is a 2-storey earthen brewing storehouse built in 1908 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 has a tiled roof and a building area of 102 square meters.

Built roughly twenty years after brewing storehouse 1 of 1889, it is the brewery's second mashing building, and it reflects a period when Yasumoto was expanding its production.

Clapboarding Right Up to the Eaves

The Agency for Cultural Affairs places the Yasumoto Sake Brewery Brewing Storehouse 2 east of the pressing house, across a work area, with its ridge running north to south. The walls are plastered in Shikkui, and over that the storehouse is clad in sasarako clapboarding all the way up to the eaves.

Shitami-itabari is horizontal overlapping board cladding; in the sasarako variant, vertical battens notched to fit the stepped boards hold them in place. Where brewing storehouse 1 has boards only around its lower walls, this one is boarded almost to the roof, so timber rather than white plaster dominates its exterior.

Inside, the roof is carried on Nobori-bari sloping beams, and the whole interior is supported by just one freestanding post. The Agency calls this a well-developed structure. With only a single post in the middle of a two-storey storehouse, the ground floor keeps an open floor for the brewing tanks lined up there.

What the Structure Shows

The Yasumoto Sake Brewery Brewing Storehouse 2 is registered as number 18-0128, for its contribution to the historic landscape; the Agency describes it as showing the historic character of a sake brewer's premises.

Brewing storehouse 1 from the Meiji 20s is a long range that holds polishing, steaming and mashing under one roof. Brewing storehouse 2 does one job, mashing, and pares back its posts to clear floor space. Comparing the two shows how the brewery's approach to storehouse building changed over about two decades.

Seeing Brewing Storehouse 2

The Yasumoto Sake Brewery Brewing Storehouse 2 stands deep inside the lot, east of the pressing house, and the Agency does not describe it as facing a road. Expect it to be difficult to see from outside.

The brewery does not run tours, and no chance to see the single-post interior is advertised. Please do not enter the grounds.