Hakubotan Sake Brewery Enpogura North End Building

What Is the Hakubotan Sake Brewery Enpogura North End Building?

The Hakubotan Sake Brewery Enpogura North End Building (白牡丹酒造延宝蔵北端棟, Hakubotan Shuzō Enpōgura Hokutantō) is an earthen-walled sake storehouse 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. With a building area of 505 square meters, it is the largest of the four registered structures at Enpogura.

The plan is an L. The building continues north from the South End Building, then turns at a right angle and runs east. Both arms are fully two storeys high, built in Dozo-zukuri with tiled roofs. The east-west arm was added later; the national database dates that extension to 1959.

The company chronology explains the timing. Enpogura lost its sake-brewing license in 1944 during wartime industry consolidation, and in 1960 the brewery received approval to expand and resumed brewing there. The extension came in the year just before.

Why Enpogura North End Building Was Registered

Like its neighbor, the North End Building became a Registered Tangible Cultural Property for its contribution to the historic landscape, under number 34-0235. The Agency for Cultural Affairs notes the striking exterior: timber boarding at the base, Shikkui lime plaster above, and drip tiles running along the wall.

The building also packs a working brewery into one structure. In the north-south arm, the ground floor is a brewing floor and the upper floor holds the koji room and other rooms. In the later east-west arm, the western part of the ground floor is also a brewing floor, while the eastern part, on both floors, holds a staff room and a laboratory. Koji making, brewing, and laboratory work all sit under one continuous roofline at Enpogura North End Building.

Enpogura also became a component of the Saijo Sake Breweries Historic Site on February 21, 2024. Higashihiroshima City lists the North End Building and a projecting wing of 1963 as separate parts of that component.

Differing Dates

Sources disagree on when the building went up. The national database gives the early Meiji period (1868 to 1882), with the 1959 extension. Higashihiroshima City estimates that the North End Building dates from the Taisho era (1912 to 1926). This article follows the national database used for registration and notes the city's estimate alongside it.

What to Look For

Enpogura North End Building is best read against the South End Building. Where the older building stands on stone and a Namako-kabe tile dado, this one has plain boarding at the base. Same compound, same earthen walls, but the finish at ground level tells you they belong to different periods and uses.

The drip-tile lines carry on into the North End Building, so the horizontal bands on the white walls appear to run without a break from one building to the next. Together the two enclose the west and north sides of the lot.

Watch the corner of the L. Because the two arms were built at different times, this is where roof heights and wall junctions tend to differ. If you can find a spot where the corner is in view, look for the seam of the extension.

The koji room upstairs is a room set aside for growing koji mold on steamed rice. Hakubotan says on its website that it still uses the traditional lid method, spreading rice in shallow wooden trays in the koji room, and the upper floor here is one of the places where that work has been done.

Visiting Enpogura North End Building

Enpogura North End Building is not open to the public; there is no access to the grounds or the interior. Hakubotan Sake Brewery keeps Enpogura closed as a rule because the buildings are old, and Higashihiroshima City also lists Enpogura as non-public.

How much of the North End Building can be seen from the street depends on conditions on the ground. Stay on the public road, do not enter the property, and keep any photographs to views from the road.

Opening hours of the head-office exhibition room and directions from Saijo Station are on the Hakubotan Sake Brewery group page.