What the Imai Sake Brewery Chimney Is
The Imai Sake Brewery Chimney (今井酒造店煙突, Imai Shuzōten Entotsu) in Toriyama-nakachō, Ota City, Gunma Prefecture, is a brick chimney built in 1908 and altered around 1965, and it became a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on August 1, 2016.
It stands south of the Boiler Room and Bottling Room, linked to that building by an underground flue. The base is about 1.3 meters square. The Agency for Cultural Affairs gives the height as 13.8 meters in its description and 14 meters in the structure field of the register. It is the only one of the six listed items at Imai that is not a building.
Why It Was Registered
It was registered for contributing to the historic landscape. The Agency describes the Imai Sake Brewery Chimney as indispensable to the brewing business and adds that it has become a symbol of the local area.
A sake brewery needs a chimney because steaming rice takes a great deal of fire. Here the smoke from the cauldron was not vented through the work building but drawn south underground and sent up this stack. The steaming room and the chimney are registered separately, yet they worked as a single heating system.
The land around Toriyama is flat farmland with few tall structures. A 13.8-meter chimney marked the brewery's location from a long way off, and that visibility is presumably part of why the Agency calls it a local symbol.
What to Look For
The brickwork is laid in English bond, English bond, in which courses of stretchers (bricks laid lengthwise) alternate with courses of headers (bricks laid end-on). It was a standard bond for Meiji-era brick. Up close you can see the long rectangles and the small, nearly square ends switching places row by row, like stripes.
Then look up. The upper part of the Imai Sake Brewery Chimney has been replaced in steel, so the color and apparent thickness change partway up. Meiji brick and a Shōwa-era repair meet in one column.
Visiting
Of the six listed structures, the Imai Sake Brewery Chimney is the easiest to spot from outside the grounds. Its top comes into view well before you reach the brewery.
Reading the English bond requires getting close, but the foot of the chimney is next to the old brewing buildings and there is no published access to it (checked September 25, 2026). Visit during shop and café hours and view it from the areas open to customers. The brewery's website has a photograph showing the New Storehouse, the Document Storehouse, the chimney and the main house together.
- 📍 Plan Your Visit to Gunma
- Find tours, activities & transport passes near Imai Sake Brewery Chimney
- [ Kusatsu Onsen & Tomioka Silk Mill Heritage Tours ]
Q&A
- How tall is the Imai Sake Brewery Chimney?
- The Agency for Cultural Affairs gives 13.8 meters in its description and 14 meters in the register’s structure field. The base is about 1.3 meters square.
- What was the Imai Sake Brewery Chimney used for?
- It carried away smoke from the rice-steaming cauldron in the Boiler Room and Bottling Room, reached through an underground flue.
- When was the Imai Sake Brewery Chimney built?
- In 1908. It was altered around 1965, and its upper section is now steel.
- What brick bond is used on the Imai Sake Brewery Chimney?
- English bond, with courses of stretchers and courses of headers alternating row by row.
- When was the Imai Sake Brewery Chimney registered as a cultural property?
- On August 1, 2016, as Registered Tangible Cultural Property No. 10-0336.
Basic Information
| Name | Imai Sake Brewery Chimney (今井酒造店煙突) |
|---|---|
| Location | 746-2 Toriyama Nakacho, Ota City, Gunma Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (building), No. 10-0336 |
| Year Designated | Registered August 1, 2016 |
| Quantity | 1 structure |
| Dimensions | Brick, 14 meters high (13.8 meters in the description), base about 1.3 meters square |
| Owner | Not listed (the Agency for Cultural Affairs database gives no owner name) |
| Public Access | Exterior visible from the surroundings (no published access to the base) |
References
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, Database of National Cultural Properties: Imai Sake Brewery Chimney
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00011067
- Ota City: Imai Sake Brewery registered buildings (Japanese)
- https://www.city.ota.gunma.jp/page/4165.html
- Imai Shuzoten official website, Kazekura (Japanese)
- https://www.kaze-kura.com/
Last verified: 2026.09.24
