Ishikura Sake Brewery

Ishikura Sake Brewery

Ishikura Sake Brewery (石蔵酒造, Ishikura Shuzō) in Katakasu, Hakata Ward, Fukuoka City, Fukuoka Prefecture, is a working sake brewery whose office and main house, main storehouse, and west storehouse with former rice mill, built between the mid-Meiji and early Showa eras, were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties (structures) on January 26, 2011 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The company runs the site under the name Hakata Hyakunen-gura, the "hundred-year brewery", and calls it the last sake brewery still operating in Hakata. The three buildings carry consecutive registration numbers, 40-0061 to 40-0063, and all three were registered for their contribution to the historic landscape (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

From Shipping House to Brewery

The company traces its roots to Ishikuraya, a merchant house said to have served the Kuroda clan while it still ruled in Harima. When the Kuroda moved to Chikuzen, Ishikuraya followed them to Hakata, and through the Edo period it ran ships between Hakata and the islands of Iki and Tsushima. Sake brewing came later in the Edo period, according to the company.

The present brewery was Ishikuraya's second brewing site. The company dates it to 1870 and marked its 150th year in 2020. The Agency's records give later dates: the main storehouse, the oldest of the three, to the mid-Meiji era (1883 to 1897), the office and main house to the Taisho era, and the west storehouse and rice mill to the early Showa era. Both accounts are given here, since they do not agree.

In June 2015 a new brewing house, the Shirakabe-gura, went into use on the same site (Ishikura Shuzo). It is not part of the registration.

How the Site Fits Together

The office and main house faces the street on its north side, a two-storey town house 18 metres wide. Behind it the main storehouse runs long from east to west: 39 metres along the ridge and 26 metres deep including its lean-to aisles. In the west corner, the former rice mill stands on the street with the west storehouse behind it, linked to the office by a covered corridor (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

From the street you see the main house and the rice mill side by side, with the two storehouses set back behind them. Black weatherboarding against white lime plaster ties the buildings together, and the company counts its white-walled storehouses and brick chimney as part of the neighbourhood's look. Each building is described on its own page.

The 2011 Fire

On October 8, 2011, nine months after registration, an electrical fire burned about 1000 square metres of the brewery (Ishikura Shuzo). According to the diary of Shozaburo Takagi, the architect who led the rebuilding, the fire started above the kitchen ceiling on the west side and ran east along the ridge beams. In the main storehouse the roof frame burned, but the upper floor and everything below it survived.

After the roofs were rebuilt and the wiring was overhauled, Hakata Hyakunen-gura reopened on January 7, 2012 (Takagi's diary). The damage and repairs to each building are covered on the pages for the main storehouse and for the west storehouse and former rice mill.

Visiting

A shop inside the brewery sells sake and offers tastings, open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., later on evenings with banquets. It closes on Tuesdays and from January 1 to 3 (Ishikura Shuzo). There are no tours of the brewing floor, and groups of 10 or more are asked to get in touch before they come.

Parts of the storehouses are used for banquets, weddings and concerts, and meals are by reservation for groups of 10 or more (Ishikura Shuzo). No rules on photography have been published.

The brewery is about 7 minutes on foot from Chiyo-Kenchoguchi Station on the Fukuoka City Subway Hakozaki Line, or 12 minutes from Gion Station on the Airport Line. Nishitetsu buses from Hakata Bus Terminal reach the Fukko-mae stop, a minute away, in about 8 minutes, though they run only about every 30 minutes. There is parking for 15 cars; tour buses must book (Ishikura Shuzo; Fukuoka Prefecture Tourist Association). The site is next door to Fukuoka Prefectural Fukuoka High School.