Hakubotan Sake Brewery Enpogura Chimney

What Is the Hakubotan Sake Brewery Enpogura Chimney?

The Hakubotan Sake Brewery Enpogura Chimney (白牡丹酒造延宝蔵煙突, Hakubotan Shuzō Enpōgura Entotsu) is a brick chimney of the early Meiji period (1868 to 1882) at Enpogura in Saijo Honmachi, Higashihiroshima City, Hiroshima Prefecture, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on June 28, 2017. It is 25 meters tall on a square base 1.9 meters a side and stands east of the Enpogura South End Building.

The brickwork is laid in English bond, and the top steps outward in a corbelled cornice. Near the top the brewery name is spelled out in katakana, ハクボタン (Hakubotan), large enough to read from a distance. The registered area is 3.7 square meters.

A brewery chimney carries smoke from the fires under the rice-steaming cauldrons high above the rooftops. Higashihiroshima City lists this chimney next to the Enpogura boiler room (late Meiji in origin, with a mid-Showa building) among the parts of the historic site. The national database gives no owner for the chimney.

Why Enpogura Chimney Was Registered

Enpogura Chimney was listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property, number 34-0237, for its contribution to the historic landscape. The Agency for Cultural Affairs calls it one of the taller brick storehouse chimneys in the area and a symbol of Saijo as a town that grew rich on sake.

In Saijo, a skyline of brick chimneys rising over tiled storehouse roofs is the town's signature view, and Hakubotan Sake Brewery Enpogura Chimney was registered as one of the stacks that make it up. When Enpogura became a component of the Saijo Sake Breweries Historic Site on February 21, 2024, the chimney was counted among its parts.

Differing Dates

The national database dates the chimney to the early Meiji period (1868 to 1882), while Higashihiroshima City places it in the late Meiji period (1898 to 1912). This article follows the national database used for registration and gives the city's view alongside.

What to Look For

Start at the top of Enpogura Chimney. The straight brick shaft ends in a stepped cornice that flares outward like a cap, which gives the tip a crisp outline against the sky.

The lettering is in katakana. The Tenpogura chimney, by contrast, carries the name in kanji, 白牡丹, so Hakubotan's two registered chimneys spell the brand two different ways. It is worth finding a spot where you can compare them.

At 25 meters, the Enpogura stack is 4 meters taller than the Tenpogura chimney, and its 1.9-meter base is wider than the 1.7 meters at Tenpogura. English bond alternates courses of bricks laid lengthwise with courses laid end-on, so if you can get a good upward view, the shaft shows a faint banded pattern course by course.

Visiting Enpogura Chimney

Enpogura Chimney stands inside Enpogura, which is closed to the public as a rule, so you cannot reach its base. Hakubotan Sake Brewery does not admit the public to Enpogura, and Higashihiroshima City lists it as a non-public part of the historic site.

Because the chimney is 25 meters tall, its upper part is easy to spot from outside the grounds. View it from the surrounding streets and keep photography to the public road. To read the ハクボタン lettering you need to find a side from which the lettered face is visible.

Exhibition room hours and directions from Saijo Station are on the Hakubotan Sake Brewery group page.