The Murai Brewery Chimney
The Murai Brewery Chimney (村井醸造煙突, Murai Jōzō Entotsu) is a reinforced concrete smokestack on the premises of a working sake brewery in the Makabe district of Sakuragawa City, Ibaraki Prefecture, built in the early Shōwa period, from 1926 onward, and entered on the national register as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 8 November 2004. It stands 22 meters tall on a base 1.45 meters in diameter, and it is the tallest thing in a townscape otherwise made of tiled roofs and white plaster.
Makabe has more than three hundred surviving storehouses, shop buildings and gates, and around a hundred of them carry the same registration. Almost all are timber and earth. The Murai Brewery Chimney is the exception. The Agency for Cultural Affairs files it not as a building but as a structure, which in practice means the register treats it the way it treats bridges, kilns and water towers rather than the way it treats houses.
It sits in the gap between the brewery's shop building and one of its earthen storehouses, close enough that from the street you see it framed by two roof ridges. The brewery itself, Murai Jōzō, traces its trade on this plot to the Enpō era of 1673 to 1680, when a merchant from Hino in Ōmi Province opened a soy sauce and miso outlet here. Sake came later. The chimney came much later still, and it marks the point at which a house of the Edo period started running on steam.
Concrete in a Town Built of Earth
Sake brewing consumes steam. Rice for the mash is steamed in a koshiki, a large tub set over boiling water, and a brewery working through a winter season needs a boiler running hard for months. The boiler needs draught, and draught needs height. That is the reason for the Murai Brewery Chimney, and it is why the structure had to be both tall and slender on a plot where every square meter was already committed to storehouses.
What makes the chimney worth registering is the material. The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes it as built with the newest technique available at the time, which for a provincial brewing town in the late 1920s meant reinforced concrete. Around it, Makabe was still building in Dozo-zukuri, the earthen-walled method that had dominated the district since a fire destroyed much of the town in 1837. A concrete shaft rising out of that was a statement about where the business thought it was going.
Three details of the construction survive intact. The flue opening at the base is built as an arch. The interior is lined with firebrick to take the heat the concrete alone could not. Near the top, a band of comb-shaped moulding runs around the shaft, which does nothing structurally and exists because someone decided a chimney on a main street should be finished properly.
What to Look For
The head of the shaft
The comb-shaped decoration near the crown is the detail most visitors miss, partly because it is 20 meters up and partly because concrete chimneys train the eye to expect nothing. Catch it in low afternoon light and the moulding throws a horizontal shadow line across the shaft. It is the only ornament on the Murai Brewery Chimney, and it dates the structure as clearly as a signature: plain reinforced concrete with a single decorative band at the head is a habit of the late 1920s and 1930s, before industrial building shed ornament altogether.
The taper and the base
The shaft narrows as it rises. At ground level it measures 1.45 meters across, which is close enough to touch and gives a useful sense of how thin 22 meters of concrete can be made when the reinforcement is doing its job. The arched flue opening at the foot is worth crouching for, since arch construction in a concrete structure is a carry-over from brick chimney practice and shows the builders working in a new material with old instincts.
A survivor of 2011
The 2011 Tōhoku earthquake hit Makabe harder than any other preservation district in Japan. More than nine out of ten traditional buildings in the district were damaged, and repair work ran on for years afterwards. The brewery reports that the Murai Brewery Chimney came through it without injury. Standing next to storehouses whose walls had to be rebuilt, the concrete shaft is a quiet argument for the material its builders chose.
Visiting the Murai Brewery Chimney
The Murai Brewery Chimney is at 72 Makabe, Makabe-chō, Sakuragawa City, on the brewery grounds reached through the gate on Kamijuku-dōri. The exterior is visible from the public street at any hour and costs nothing to look at. The upper two thirds of the shaft clear the surrounding roofs, so it also serves as a useful landmark when you are working out where you are in the district's grid of Masugata corners.
To get closer, the brewery runs guided tours of the site and its four registered properties. Tours must be booked in advance by telephone or through the website's enquiry form, and the brewery recommends email because staff are often away from the phone during the brewing season. A visit runs about 30 minutes, covers the company's history and the parts of the working cellars that can be opened, and finishes at the tasting counter, where the products are poured free of charge. Groups of up to 10 are taken at once; larger parties are split. The kōji room is not shown, and from October to March the tour of the fermentation cellar is suspended while the brewery is in production, though the registered structures can still be seen.
Opening hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with tours on Monday to Saturday only. Sundays and public holidays are closed. There is no admission charge. Photography of the exterior from the street is unrestricted; the brewery publishes no rule for photographs taken inside the grounds, so ask when you arrive. Parking on site is limited to about three cars plus a microbus or small coach, and medium and large coaches cannot enter, so drivers of larger vehicles should use the municipal Takajōmachi car park at 279-1 Makabe, which holds 65 cars.
By train, the nearest station is Iwase on the JR Mito Line, about 20 minutes away by taxi. From Tsukuba Station, take the Tsukuba city bus roughly 50 minutes to Tsukuba-san-guchi and change to the Sakuragawa city bus, branded Yamazakura GO, for a further 20 minutes; the Kamijuku stop is a short walk from the brewery gate. By car it is about 20 minutes from the Sakuragawa-Chikusei interchange on the Kita-Kantō Expressway. If you can choose your date, come between 4 February and 3 March, when the Makabe Hina Matsuri fills more than a hundred houses and shops in the district with displays of dolls; the brewery joins in with exhibitions in its own buildings, and the streets around the chimney are at their busiest.
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Q&A
- Where exactly is the Murai Brewery Chimney and can I see it without booking?
- It stands at 72 Makabe, Makabe-chō, Sakuragawa City, Ibaraki Prefecture, on the grounds of the Murai Jōzō sake brewery just inside the gate on Kamijuku-dōri. You do not need a booking or a ticket to see it. The shaft rises well above the neighbouring roofs and is plainly visible from the public street at any time of day.
- How tall is the Murai Brewery Chimney and what is it built from?
- It is 22 meters tall with a base diameter of 1.45 meters, built of reinforced concrete and lined internally with firebrick. The flue opening at the foot is formed as an arch, and a band of comb-shaped moulding runs around the shaft near the top. It is recorded as a single structure in the national register.
- Can I tour the brewery where the Murai Brewery Chimney stands?
- Yes, by advance booking. Contact Murai Jōzō by telephone or through the enquiry form on its website; email is the more reliable route during the brewing season. Tours last about 30 minutes, take up to 10 people at a time, run Monday to Saturday between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., and end with a free tasting. From October to March the fermentation cellar itself is closed to visitors while brewing is under way.
- When was the Murai Brewery Chimney registered, and what does that status mean?
- It was registered on 8 November 2004 under registration number 08-0156, on the ground that it contributes to the historic landscape of Japan. Registration is a light-touch system: owners notify the authorities before altering a registered property and receive guidance, which lets them keep using the building or structure in daily business.
- How do I reach the Murai Brewery Chimney by public transport?
- The closest railway station is Iwase on the JR Mito Line, about 20 minutes by taxi. Alternatively, from Tsukuba Station take the Tsukuba city bus about 50 minutes to Tsukuba-san-guchi, then the Sakuragawa city bus, Yamazakura GO, about 20 minutes to the Kamijuku stop. Drivers reach Makabe in roughly 20 minutes from the Sakuragawa-Chikusei interchange.
Basic Information
| Name | Murai Brewery Chimney (村井醸造煙突, Murai Jōzō Entotsu) |
|---|---|
| Location | 72 Makabe, Makabe-chō, Sakuragawa City, Ibaraki Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structures); registration number 08-0156 |
| Year Designated | Registered 8 November 2004 (Heisei 16) |
| Quantity | 1 structure |
| Dimensions | Height 22 meters; base diameter 1.45 meters; reinforced concrete |
| Owner | Not published in the Agency for Cultural Affairs database; the site is used and maintained by Murai Jōzō Co., Ltd. |
| Public Access | Exterior visible from the street at all times, free of charge; entry to the grounds by advance booking, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Saturday |
References
- Murai Jōzō Entotsu, National Database of Cultural Properties, Agency for Cultural Affairs
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00004326
- Makabe Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings, Sakuragawa City
- https://www.city.sakuragawa.lg.jp/education/bunkazai/city_bunkazai/kuni_bunkazai/page003423.html
- The Townscape of Makabe, Sakuragawa City
- https://www.city.sakuragawa.lg.jp/tourism_guide/learn/page000455.html
- Makabe Hina Matsuri, Sakuragawa City
- https://www.city.sakuragawa.lg.jp/tourism_guide/play/page002066.html
- Brewery Tour Information, Murai Jōzō Co., Ltd.
- https://www.komei.co.jp/brew-factory2.html
Last verified: 2026.09.08