Saijo Tsuru Brewery Shuhogura Fermentation Storehouse

The Largest of the Storehouses

The Saijo Tsuru Brewery Shuhogura Fermentation Storehouse (西條鶴醸造酒宝蔵仕込蔵, Saijōtsuru Jōzō Shuhōgura Shikomigura) is a two-storey Dozo-zukuri sake storehouse of the late Meiji period (1898 to 1912) at Saijo Tsuru Brewery in Saijo Honmachi, Higashihiroshima City, Hiroshima Prefecture, listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on August 1, 2016. Its roof is red tile, and at 221 square meters it has the largest building area of the four listed buildings at the brewery.

It is the northern member of the Shuhogura, the continuous line of storehouses at the back of the lot, and adjoins the brewing storehouse to the south. A shikomigura, literally a "mashing storehouse," is where steamed rice, koji and water are combined into moromi, the fermenting mash, and left to ferment.

An Irregular Plan and a Wall of Lattice Windows

It measures 10 Ken along the ridge and 6 ken across, roughly 18.2 by 10.9 meters if one ken is taken as about 1.82 meters. The length matches the brewing storehouse next door, but it is a ken and a half wider. The Agency for Cultural Affairs notes that the plan is slightly irregular.

The walls are finished in Shikkui lime plaster, and along the back the lower part is sheathed in Shitami-itabari clapboard. The feature the Agency points to is the exterior wall lined with lattice windows: a steady beat of vertical bars against white plaster, with timber boards guarding the base at the rear.

Inside, the posts are left exposed in Shinkabe fashion. The roof is framed with a Truss, and part of the east half is open to the roof as a Fukinuke void.

Telling It Apart from the Brewing Storehouse

It was registered as number 34-0201 under the criterion of contributing to the historic landscape of the nation.

Set beside the brewing storehouse in the same Shuhogura line, the differences are easy to read. The brewing storehouse has a second floor over its east half; the Saijo Tsuru Brewery Shuhogura Fermentation Storehouse leaves part of its east half open to the roof. The brewing storehouse is plastered all over in okabe style, while the fermentation storehouse adds clapboard at the base of its rear wall and a row of lattice windows. Both date from the late Meiji period, yet floor and wall finishes distinguish them.

Mashing needs floor space for rows of large vats and tanks, and having the largest footprint of the brewery's four listed buildings suits the job.

Visiting

The Saijo Tsuru Brewery Shuhogura Fermentation Storehouse is in active use, and its interior can be seen only on the brewery's Sakagura Monogatari (Brewery Story) tour. The notice does not list which storehouses the tour enters, so ask about the fermentation storehouse when you book. Photography inside is fully permitted.

The city's tourism site says that during the brewing season visitors can listen to the moromi bubbling as it ferments. To see mashing in progress, choose a date in the brewing season.

Tour days, fees and directions are gathered on the Saijo Tsuru Brewery page.