Fukubijin Sake Brewery Fukujin Dormitory (Fukujinryo)

A Dark Accent Among White Storehouses

Fukubijin Sake Brewery Fukujin Dormitory (福美人酒造福神寮, Fukujinryo) is a Taisho-era dormitory (1912 to 1926) on the Ebisu-gura compound in Saijo Honmachi, Higashihiroshima City, Hiroshima Prefecture, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property of Japan on 1 August 2016.

It stands beside the No. 1 Storehouse on its west side, with the Employee Dormitory attached further west. It is a two-storey timber building with a tiled roof and its ridge running east to west. At 85 square metres it is the smallest of Fukubijin's registered buildings.

Its name, Fukujin, is the same as the old place name from which the brewery's own name is said to take its first syllable.

Why Its Position Matters

Fukubijin Sake Brewery Fukujin Dormitory is shaped by the plot and the street. On the north side, facing the road, a single-storey lean-to with a trapezoidal plan projects outward, following the angle of the boundary so that a rectangular building fits neatly into an awkward corner.

The building also sits at the end of a three-way junction, so anyone walking up the road sees its wall head-on. The Agency for Cultural Affairs notes that its black-painted Shitami-itabari clapboard cladding serves as an accent among the white earthen storehouses.

Into the brewery's palette of white and red, a single black wall is inserted. The building is small, but from the street it shapes how the whole of Ebisu-gura is seen.

What to Look For

Walk round to the north side to see the trapezoidal lean-to. Its wall is set at an angle to follow the boundary, a clear contrast with the straight walls of the storehouses nearby.

The black clapboards overlap slightly, throwing fine horizontal shadows. Approach from the junction and the dark wall appears at the end of a row of white storehouses.

Visiting

There is no announced public access to the interior of Fukubijin Sake Brewery Fukujin Dormitory. The exterior is best seen from the north, looking up from the three-way junction.

Take in the Employee Dormitory to the west as well; the two dormitories stand in one continuous line. The Ebisu-gura compound itself is open during shop hours.