Kirei Sake Brewery Western-Style Building

A one-room Western-style building on the street

Kirei Sake Brewery Western-Style Building (亀齢酒造洋館, Kirei Shuzō Yōkan) is a timber Western-style building in Saijo Honmachi, Higashihiroshima City, Hiroshima Prefecture, built in the Taisho era (1912 to 1926), moved to its present spot around 1955, and listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 1 August 2016. It stands toward the west end of the south edge of Kirei's main plot, directly on the street.

It is a single-storey timber building with a footprint of just 18 square metres, the smallest of the six Kirei structures registered that day. The north side joins the company office, and inside is a single room used for receiving guests.

Why it was listed: a brewer's parlour

The building was registered as a contribution to the historical landscape of the nation. The Agency for Cultural Affairs calls Kirei Sake Brewery Western-Style Building a typical example of the Saijo brewer who kept a Western-style building alongside the brewery. Picture the street: a run of white-walled storehouses, then a small Western-style reception room attached to the office. That pairing, in the Agency's reading, is itself a Saijo type.

Its move is on record. Built in the Taisho era, the building was shifted to its current position around 1955. The Agency's notes on the gatepost next door say the posts were put up to match the relocation of the Western-style building by Hikiya, the technique of sliding a building to a new site in one piece rather than taking it apart. The building and the gatepost that shape this stretch of street front were arranged as a pair at the same time.

What to look for: a clipped gable and a Shokko-pattern ceiling

The roof is a half-hipped gable in Sangawara-buki tile: the top of the gable end is cut back at an angle, and Japanese tiles sit over Western-style walls. The windows are sash windows that slide up and down. Tile roof over sash windows is the combination to look for from the street.

Inside, the Agency records a coffered Gō-tenjō ceiling laid out in the Shokko pattern, a repeating design of octagons linked by small squares, so the grid of the coffers presumably follows that outline. The parlour is not open to visitors, so this is a detail you will have to take on trust.

At 18 square metres this is a tiny building, yet it occupies the spot that serves as the brewery's face to the street. Its size makes the point clearly: where the brewer received guests, he chose a style different from the storehouses.

Visiting

Kirei Sake Brewery Western-Style Building stands right on the street, so its exterior, roof and windows included, can be seen from the public road. The reception room inside is not open.

The gatepost stands immediately to the east. Step back to the far side of the street to see the building and the gatepost together as a single frontage. Keep photography to the street, and ask the shop staff before taking pictures on the grounds.