Former Otake Sake Brewery Brick Warehouse

The Last Sake Brewery Store in Central Maebashi

The Former Otake Sake Brewery Brick Warehouse (旧大竹酒造煉瓦蔵, Kyu Otake Shuzo Rengagura) is a two-storey brick sake store of the late Taisho period in Mikawacho, Maebashi City, Gunma Prefecture, which in 2016 was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs records a tiled roof and a building area of 236 square metres, owned by Maebashi City, and calls it the only sake brewery store left in central Maebashi.

It is now preserved and used by the city as the Maebashi Renga-gura arts and culture venue.

History

Maebashi City says the building went up as a brewing store for a sake maker before the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. After a change of owners, it operated as the Otake brewery until 1972.

The Agency records that Otake Shuzo acquired the building in 1933 and brewed here until 1972, after which the city restored it for preservation and use.

Structure and What to Look For

According to the Agency, it is essentially brick, but the walls are only one brick thick, and inside two rows of 8 posts support a Japanese-style roof frame: brick walls combined with a timber roof structure.

On the outside, overburnt bricks pick out the eaves cornice, the gables and parts of the pilasters, emphasising their relief. Look for the darker, harder-fired bricks shading the red walls.

Maebashi City notes that the interior is a single open space that keeps the original posts. The two rows of posts still show the structure of the brewing days.

Visiting the Former Otake Sake Brewery Brick Warehouse

The Maebashi Renga-gura is used as a multipurpose rental venue, available from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. by advance booking and closed over the New Year. Bookings go to the Maebashi city development corporation, 027-289-5565, and events are listed on the city portal Maebashi igoo.

It is about 10 minutes on foot from the north exit of JR Maebashi Station, or about 3 minutes from Chuo-Maebashi Station on the Jomo Electric Railway, with parking on the south side. The Agency gives the address as 1-28-23 Mikawacho; the city's facility page uses 1-16-27 Mikawacho.