Fukubijin Sake Brewery Showa-gura

A Single-Storey Hall for Big Tanks

Fukubijin Sake Brewery Showa-gura (福美人酒造昭和蔵, Fukubijin Shuzō Shōwa-gura) is an early Showa brewery building (1926 to 1945) 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 sits in the north-east corner of the compound, continuing east from the Rear Storehouse, with its ridge running east to west. It is a single-storey timber building under a gabled slate roof, covering 138 square metres.

Single-storey does not mean low inside. The building was designed to hold large tanks, and its windows are set high up under the eaves. As the name suggests, it is a storehouse of the Showa era, built for the way brewing was changing.

A Storehouse for the Age of Tanks

The roof of Fukubijin Sake Brewery Showa-gura is carried on a King post truss, a Western framing system in which a central post and diagonals form a triangle that spans the room without intermediate posts. Setting out large tanks demanded exactly that kind of open floor.

The high windows follow the same logic. With tanks filling the lower part of the walls, light and air had to come in from above. Read from outside, the height of the windows tells you how the space inside was used.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs credits the Showa-gura, together with the Rear Storehouse, with contributing to the streetscape. Along the road on the north side of Ebisu-gura, the two form a continuous line of brewery buildings.

What to Look For

The first thing you notice is the row of windows tucked right under the eaves, far higher than on an ordinary building, with the lower half of the wall left blank. Those proportions give the Showa-gura its character.

Compare it with the Rear Storehouse to the west. Walking along the north road, the outline shifts from the stepped roof of the Rear Storehouse to the simple gable of the Showa-gura.

Visiting

There is no announced public access to the interior of Fukubijin Sake Brewery Showa-gura. The exterior can be seen from the road along the north side of the Ebisu-gura compound.

Because it occupies the north-east corner, the building can be seen from two streets, north and east, each giving a different angle. The compound itself is open during shop hours.