A Meiji merchant house at the head of Saijo's sake street
The main house of Kamoizumi Shuzo faces the road that threads through Saijo, the district of Higashihiroshima counted alongside Nada in Hyogo and Fushimi in Kyoto as one of Japan's three great sake towns. Timber-framed, two storeys tall and roofed in tile, it covers roughly 179 square metres and was raised in the late Meiji period, between about 1898 and 1912.
Its street front sets the visual key for the whole brewery. Vertical wooden lattice runs across the ground-floor openings, and short wing walls, called sode-kabe, project at the second floor in the manner of a machiya, the townhouse type used by the merchant class. Behind that reserved face the building doubled as shop, dwelling and reception space.
Why it carries cultural-property status
The house was entered on the national register of Tangible Cultural Properties on 1 August 2016, in the eighty-fourth round of registrations, under the criterion that it contributes to the historic landscape of the country. Registration is a lighter form of protection than formal designation, applied to buildings of around half a century or more whose form still shapes their surroundings.
The plan repays a slow look. An earthen-floored passage, the doma, runs along the east side, while the west side holds six rooms in two rows. The middle room of the west row served as the butsuma, the family altar room, and the innermost as a ten-mat formal guest room fitted with a proper decorative alcove. Shop, home and formal reception sit under one roof, a record of how a Saijo brewing family lived and traded around 1900.
What to notice on a visit
The main house is the public face of a brewery that still works. The ground-floor shop welcomes visitors; the family rooms behind are not generally shown. Kamoizumi began in 1912 as the Maegaki sake brewery and later earned a name as a pioneer of postwar junmai, or pure-rice, sake, its bottles recognisable by an amber tint the makers leave in by skipping charcoal filtration.
Read the latticework and wing walls from the street, then step into the shop or the nearby Shusenkan cafe for a tasting. JR Saijo Station lies about ten minutes away on foot, and the same walk takes in the red-tiled roofs and brick chimneys that give the street its character.
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Q&A
- Can visitors go inside the main house?
- The ground-floor shop area is open to the public. The private living rooms behind it are not generally open, though the street facade can be seen at any time.
- How old is the building?
- It dates to the late Meiji period, about 1898 to 1912, and was placed on the national register in 2016.
- What is a machiya?
- A machiya is the traditional urban townhouse of Japan's merchant class, typically combining a shop at the front with living quarters behind. The lattice front and second-floor wing walls here are characteristic features.
- How do I get there?
- The brewery sits at the eastern end of the Saijo Sakagura-dori, or sake brewery street, roughly a ten-minute walk from JR Saijo Station.
Basic Information
| Name | Kamoizumi Shuzo Main House (Tenpo-ken Shuoku) |
|---|---|
| Location | 953 area, Kamiichi-machi, Saijo, Higashihiroshima, Hiroshima |
| Category | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (building) |
| Registration date | 1 August 2016 (registration no. 34-0178) |
| Count / structure | 1 building; timber, two storeys, tile roof, floor area approx. 179 m2 |
| Period | Late Meiji period (approx. 1898-1912) |
| Owner | Kamoizumi Shuzo Co., Ltd. |
| Access | About 10 min on foot from JR Saijo Station; shop area open to visitors |
References
- National Database of Cultural Properties, Agency for Cultural Affairs — Kamoizumi Shuzo Main House
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00011185
- Kamoizumi Shuzo Co., Ltd. official site
- https://www.kamoizumi.co.jp/
- Higashihiroshima Tourism — Kamoizumi Shuzo
- https://higashihiroshima-kanko.jp/spot/kamoizumi/
Last verified: 2026.07.03