Yasumoto Sake Brewery Storehouse

A 1918 Storehouse with a Fan-Shaped Crest

The Yasumoto Sake Brewery Storehouse (安本酒造土蔵, Yasumoto Shuzō Dozō) is a 2-storey earthen storehouse built in 1918 at Yasumoto Sake Brewery in Yasuhara-cho, Fukui City, Fukui Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on March 26, 2015. The Agency for Cultural Affairs database records its structure as a 2-storey wooden building with a tiled roof and a building area of 49 square meters.

It stands halfway down the west side of the brewery lot, set back from the road. The pressing house went up in the same year, 1918, and the storehouse belongs to the phase when the back of the compound was being filled in after the Meiji house and rice store.

Window Frames That Stand Proud of the Wall

The Agency describes the Yasumoto Sake Brewery Storehouse as running north to south under a gabled roof laid with pantiles. At the apex of the gable, where the two roof slopes meet, is a fan-shaped kura crest, the family's mark rendered on the wall. Placed at the tip of the triangle, it is visible from some distance.

The upper floor has six windows, each framed in Shikkui plaster that projects out from the wall face. On an otherwise flat white wall, only the window surrounds stand out in relief, and the Agency identifies them as the accent of the exterior.

Inside, the roof rests on Nobori-bari, sloping beams that lean their upper ends on a heavy longitudinal beam beneath the ridge. The rice storehouse uses the same sloping beams, so the method seems to be common to the Yasumoto storehouses.

Why It Was Registered

The Yasumoto Sake Brewery Storehouse is registered as number 18-0126, for its contribution to the historic landscape.

Neither the projecting frames nor the fan crest were needed for storage. That they were added to a building at the back of the lot says something about how carefully the brewery finished even its less visible storehouses.

Seeing the Storehouse

The Yasumoto Sake Brewery Storehouse stands inside the lot, and the Agency does not describe it as facing a road. Expect it to be difficult to see from the old road.

The brewery does not offer tours, and the interior is not open. Please do not enter the grounds; enjoy what can be seen from the surrounding public roads.