Kirei Sake Brewery No. 1 Storehouse Chimney

A square brick chimney in the middle of the plot

Kirei Sake Brewery No. 1 Storehouse Chimney (亀齢酒造一号蔵煙突, Kirei Shuzō Ichigō-gura Entotsu) is a brick chimney on the main plot of Kirei Sake Brewery in Saijo Honmachi, Higashihiroshima City, Hiroshima Prefecture, built in the Taisho era (1912 to 1926), and was listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 1 August 2016. It is 24 metres tall and square in plan.

It stands at the very centre of the plot. Each side measures 1.9 metres at the base, and the brickwork climbs from there to the full 24 metres, with a projecting cornice near the top as its only ornament.

The name ties it to the No. 1 Storehouse, but the dates do not line up neatly. The storehouse is late Meiji; Kirei Sake Brewery No. 1 Storehouse Chimney is Taisho. The building came first and the chimney followed.

A marker for a brewing town

The chimney was registered as a contribution to the historical landscape of the nation. The Agency for Cultural Affairs sees it as one of the many chimneys standing across central Saijo, and credits them with giving the town its character as a place that makes sake.

Among two-storey earthen storehouses, a 24-metre chimney towers. White walls and tiled roofs spread horizontally; the brick shaft puts one strong vertical line through them. That contrast is what lets you pick out Saijo's brewery quarter from a distance.

What to look for: English bond and the cornice

The bricks are laid in English bond: one course showing only the long faces of the bricks (stretchers), the next showing only the short ends (headers), alternating all the way up. The Agency notes that this bond is common on Saijo's brick chimneys, and this one is a clear example. Look up and you can see the long and short courses trading places like stripes.

The cornice near the top is a band of stepped brick wrapped around the shaft. Rather than letting the square column simply run out into the sky, it marks off the head of the chimney. From a distance, that band is what gives the top its finished look.

Kirei's other listed chimney, at the No. 7 Storehouse about 150 metres to the northeast, is round. Seeing the two in succession is the easiest way to appreciate the difference.

Visiting

Kirei Sake Brewery No. 1 Storehouse Chimney stands inside a working brewery, and you cannot walk up to its base. At 24 metres, though, it is easy to see from outside the grounds, rising above the storehouse roofs.

The striping of the English bond reads best in early morning or late afternoon, when low light throws the mortar joints into shadow. If you enter the grounds while the brewery shop, Manekiya, is open, ask the staff before taking photographs.