Kamotsuru Sake Brewery No. 8 Brewhouse Chimney

An early Showa chimney with ladder and steel bands

Kamotsuru Sake Brewery No. 8 Brewhouse Chimney (賀茂鶴酒造八号蔵煙突, Kamotsuru Shuzō Hachigōgura Entotsu) is a brick chimney from the early Showa era (1926 to 1945) at the head office of Kamotsuru Sake Brewery in Saijo Honmachi, Higashihiroshima City, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on June 28, 2017.

It belongs to the No. 8 Brewhouse, east of the No. 2 Brewhouse. Its base is 1.6 meters a side and it stands 16.9 meters high, the newest of Kamotsuru's four registered chimneys.

The brand name on three faces

The brick is laid in English bond with a corbelled crown. Steel reinforcing bands wrap all four sides, and a ladder is fixed to the shaft. The name Kamotsuru is mounted near the top on three faces.

With the name on three sides, it can be read from almost any direction. Like the No. 2 chimney, and unlike the No. 3 and No. 4 chimneys that add brewery numbers, the Kamotsuru Sake Brewery No. 8 Brewhouse Chimney shows the brand alone.

Dating the brewhouse and its chimney

According to the brewery, the No. 8 Brewhouse was moved in 1956 from the Yoshitomi brewery to a site beside the No. 6 Brewhouse and renovated in 1985; hand brewing was kept on in Nos. 8 and 2 after the suburban brewery opened in 1995.

The national database, however, dates the Kamotsuru Sake Brewery No. 8 Brewhouse Chimney to the early Showa era, before that move. We found no record of which brewhouse the chimney was first built for. It was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape.

Visiting the Kamotsuru Sake Brewery No. 8 Brewhouse Chimney

The Kamotsuru Sake Brewery No. 8 Brewhouse Chimney stands in the working brewery and cannot be approached. Thanks to the lettering on three faces, the name is legible over the roofs from the east side of the site or from near the No. 2 Brewhouse.