Kirei Sake Brewery No. 7 Storehouse Chimney

Saijo's last round brick chimney

Kirei Sake Brewery No. 7 Storehouse Chimney (亀齢酒造七号蔵煙突, Kirei Shuzō Nanagō-gura Entotsu) is a brick chimney in Saijo Honmachi, Higashihiroshima City, Hiroshima Prefecture, built around 1955 and listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 1 August 2016. It stands on the plot of the No. 7 Storehouse, about 150 metres northeast of Kirei's main plot, and belongs to that storehouse.

It is round in plan, 1.7 metres in diameter at the base. According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs, it is the only round brick chimney left in the Saijo district.

Two heights are on record. The Agency's database gives 20 metres in its structure field and 19.5 metres in its descriptive text. This article uses about 20 metres and notes the other figure alongside.

A chimney said to come from soy sauce making

The Agency records that for a period after the war, soy sauce was brewed on this site, and that Kirei Sake Brewery No. 7 Storehouse Chimney is said to be part of that operation. It is registered as a sake brewery chimney, but its origins may lie in a different kind of brewing altogether.

It was registered as a contribution to the historical landscape of the nation. Kirei's own No. 1 Storehouse Chimney, on the main plot, is square brick. Among the brick chimneys left in Saijo, this is the only round one, and that rarity is what gives it its value.

What to look for: a rounded shaft, and the square one for comparison

A square chimney is defined by flat faces and hard edges. A round one picks up a soft gradient of shadow across its curve as the light moves. Look up and the horizontal mortar joints wrap around the curve without ever turning a corner.

Walk here from the Taisho-era square chimney on the main plot and the difference is obvious. Within one brewery, a square chimney from the Taisho era and a round postwar one stand about 150 metres apart.

Visiting

Kirei Sake Brewery No. 7 Storehouse Chimney stands on private land and you cannot approach it. You see it by looking up from the surrounding public roads.

The curve of the shaft shows best in morning or late-afternoon light, when the sun strikes it from the side. It is about 150 metres northeast of the main plot, an easy walk from the No. 1 Storehouse Chimney. Keep photography to the street.