Komachi Sake Brewery Storehouse

A compact storehouse of 1925

The Komachi Sake Brewery Storehouse (小町酒造土蔵, Komachi Shuzō Dozō) in Sohara Ibukicho, Kakamigahara City, Gifu Prefecture, is a 2-storey earthen-walled storehouse built in 1925 in the southeast corner of the Komachi Sake Brewery, and it was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 2008/04/18 (registration number 21-0162). It faces the street and is built against the shop and main house.

It is built in the fire-resistant Dozo-zukuri manner, with a Kirizuma-zukuri gabled roof of Sangawara-buki pantiles. At 6.6 metres by 3.8 metres, with a building area of 25 square metres, it is a small building.

Round stones and black boards

The base is laid in round stones. Over walls finished in Shikkui plaster the builders fixed black-painted boards to shield the plaster from rain and wind, so the black surface runs from the footing almost to the eaves.

On the south side the windows on both floors have small Hisashi canopies carried on Mochiokuri brackets. According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs, these canopies give the exterior variety and help create a calm streetscape. On a plain box of a building, their shadows mark two rows, one above the other.

What to look at

The Komachi Sake Brewery Storehouse faces the street, so view it from the south. The shape of the brackets under the canopies and the uneven face of the stone base reward a closer look.

Beside the black plaster of the shop and main house, its black boards show a different texture. The round stones of its base are the same material as the footing of the gate and wall around the garden, a thread that runs through the outer face of the compound.

Visiting

The Komachi Sake Brewery Storehouse belongs to a working brewery and its interior is not open. The exterior can be seen from the street. Shop days and directions from the station are on the Komachi Sake Brewery page.