The Murai Brewery Store
The Murai Brewery Store (村井醸造店舗, Murai Jōzō Tenpo) is a two-storey earthen-walled shop building at 72 Makabe in the Makabe district of Sakuragawa City, Ibaraki Prefecture, put up in the early Meiji period, from 1868 onward, and entered on the national register as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 8 November 2004. It covers 231 square meters and faces you head-on as you come through the gate from Kamijuku-dōri.
The Agency for Cultural Affairs calls it the central facility of the sake brewery that survives in the old town. That phrasing is exact. Of the four registered properties on this plot, the Murai Brewery Store is the one where business was actually transacted, and it is still where a visitor buys a bottle today. The register files it under tertiary industry, the category for commerce, while the chimney and the side storehouse beside it are filed under secondary industry, the category for manufacturing. The paperwork records a division of labour you can read off the buildings themselves.
Murai Jōzō has traded on this ground since the Enpō era of 1673 to 1680, when Murai Jūsuke, a merchant from Hino in the province of Ōmi, opened an outlet here selling soy sauce and miso. The family moved into brewing later, and by the time this shop went up in the early Meiji years the house had been in business for two centuries.
Why Makabe Built Its Shops Out of Earth
In 1837 a fire tore through Makabe. Before it, roofs here were thatch and board. After it, the merchants rebuilt in tile, and the shop-fronted storehouse became the standard form for anyone with stock worth protecting. The oldest buildings still standing in the district date from immediately after that fire, and the habit it created outlasted the generation that learned it.
The Meiji years brought a second wave. Makabe Bank opened, silk reeling took hold, and drapers lined the main street in front of the old Jinya administrative compound. Merchants who had been forbidden ornate gates under the domain built them freely once the restriction lapsed, which is why a commercial town ends up full of Yakuimon gates and board fences. Storehouses and shop buildings went up faster in these decades than at any point before or since. The Murai Brewery Store belongs to that boom.
The method is Dozo-zukuri: a timber frame carrying thick layers of earth built up over a bamboo lath, finished in lime plaster. It is slow, heavy and close to fireproof, and for a brewery holding a season's production it was the obvious answer. Around a hundred buildings in Makabe now carry the same national registration, and in 2010 the district became the first in Ibaraki Prefecture to be selected as an Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings.
Reading the Building
The roof that drops halfway along
The main ridge of the Murai Brewery Store runs east to west under a Kirizuma-zukuri gable roof laid in Sangawara-buki pantiles. The eastern half of that ridge is dropped to a lower level, a treatment the Japanese record calls otoshi-yane. The result is a roofline that steps down partway along its length rather than running clean from end to end. It reads as a building that grew, or was planned to look as though it had, and it is the first thing to notice from the gate.
Plaster above, timber below
The walls are finished in white Shikkui lime plaster, but only from about waist height upward. Below that runs sasarako-shitami, a variety of Shitami-itabari weatherboarding in which the vertical battens holding the overlapping boards are notched to fit them. It is a detail that costs more than a plain batten and does the job better, throwing rain clear of the plaster where splash from the ground would otherwise eat into it. On a building this size the dado runs the full width of the front, and the line where board meets plaster is what gives the elevation its horizontal emphasis.
The size of it
The plan measures 9 Ken along the ridge by 6 ken across, roughly 16 meters by 11 meters, with the western half widening to 8 ken. A ken is about 1.8 meters, the traditional module set by the length of a tatami mat, and a nine-bay frontage puts the Murai Brewery Store among the larger earthen-walled shop buildings anywhere in the district. Standing at the gate, the useful comparison is with the ordinary two-bay or three-bay shopfronts along the surrounding streets.
Visiting the Murai Brewery Store
Unlike most registered buildings in Makabe, the Murai Brewery Store is one you can simply walk into. It is a working shop, open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. from Monday to Saturday, closed on Sundays and public holidays, with no admission charge and nothing to book. The tasting counter sits near the entrance and pours the house range free of charge; payment for anything you buy is by cash or PayPay only. Even if you want nothing, stepping inside is the easiest way in the district to stand under a Meiji-era earthen-walled roof structure.
For more than the shop floor, Murai Jōzō guides visitors around the site by prior arrangement. Book by telephone or through the enquiry form on the brewery's website; staff recommend the form, since the phone often goes unanswered during the brewing season. The visit takes about 30 minutes and covers the history of the house, the parts of the cellars that can be opened, and the tasting. Up to 10 people are taken at a time and larger parties are divided. The kōji room stays closed to visitors, and between October and March the cellar portion of the tour is suspended while brewing is under way, though the Murai Brewery Store itself remains open through those months.
Photographing the building from Kamijuku-dōri is unrestricted. The brewery publishes no policy on photography inside the shop or the grounds, so the sensible thing is to ask at the counter. On-site parking takes about three cars along with a microbus or small coach; medium and large coaches are not admitted and should use the municipal car park at 279-1 Makabe, which holds 65 vehicles a short walk away.
Iwase Station on the JR Mito Line is the nearest railhead, about 20 minutes by taxi. Coming from the south, take the Tsukuba city bus from Tsukuba Station about 50 minutes to Tsukuba-san-guchi and change there to the Sakuragawa city bus, Yamazakura GO, for around 20 minutes to the Kamijuku stop. Drivers need roughly 20 minutes from the Sakuragawa-Chikusei interchange. The most rewarding window is 4 February to 3 March, when the Makabe Hina Matsuri runs; during the festival the brewery hangs an exhibition of Japanese-style paintings by local artists in the store's inner warehouse and sets out its own collection of dolls, which is the one time of year the interior is dressed for visitors rather than for trade.
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Q&A
- Can I go inside the Murai Brewery Store?
- Yes. It is a working sake shop, open to anyone during business hours, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Saturday. No booking, ticket or fee is needed to enter and browse. Sundays and public holidays are closed. To see beyond the shop floor into the cellars, arrange a guided visit with the brewery in advance.
- How big is the Murai Brewery Store and how is it built?
- It has a floor area of 231 square meters on a plan of 9 ken by 6 ken, with the western half widening to 8 ken, and stands two storeys high. The construction is dozo-zukuri, an earthen-walled method, under a gabled pantile roof whose eastern half is dropped to a lower level. The walls are white lime plaster above a notched-batten weatherboard dado.
- When was the Murai Brewery Store registered and what does registration mean?
- It was registered on 8 November 2004 as registration number 08-0155, on the ground that it contributes to the historic landscape of Japan. Registration works through notification and advice rather than strict control, so the owner can keep trading from the building instead of preserving it as an exhibit.
- Can I taste or buy sake at the Murai Brewery Store?
- Yes. A tasting counter near the entrance offers the house range at no charge, and the full product line is on sale. Payment is accepted in cash or by PayPay only, so bring cash if you are not set up for that service. The brewery's labels include Kōmei, Makabe and Shinjō.
- What else is worth seeing near the Murai Brewery Store?
- Three more registered properties stand on the same premises: the 22-meter reinforced concrete chimney and the side storehouse, both a few paces away, and a stone storehouse of the Taishō period. Beyond the gate, the surrounding streets hold around a hundred registered buildings within the Makabe preservation district, so the shop makes a natural first stop on a walk rather than a destination on its own.
Basic Information
| Name | Murai Brewery Store (村井醸造店舗, Murai Jōzō Tenpo) |
|---|---|
| Location | 72 Makabe, Makabe-chō, Sakuragawa City, Ibaraki Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structures); registration number 08-0155 |
| Year Designated | Registered 8 November 2004 (Heisei 16) |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Floor area 231 square meters; 9 ken by 6 ken, the western half 8 ken; 2 storeys; earthen-walled construction with a tiled roof |
| Owner | Not published in the Agency for Cultural Affairs database; the building is used and maintained by Murai Jōzō Co., Ltd. |
| Public Access | Open as a shop, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Saturday, free of charge; cellars by advance booking |
References
- Murai Jōzō Tenpo, National Database of Cultural Properties, Agency for Cultural Affairs
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00004325
- 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
- Company Profile and History, Murai Jōzō Co., Ltd.
- https://www.komei.co.jp/murai.html
- Brewery Tour Information, Murai Jōzō Co., Ltd.
- https://www.komei.co.jp/brew-factory2.html
Last verified: 2026.09.08