Hashimoto Sake Brewery Former Rice Mill

Two Clay Stores Under One Roof

Hashimoto Sake Brewery Former Rice Mill (橋本酒造旧精米所, Hashimoto Shuzō Kyū-seimaisho) is a rice-polishing building erected in 1921 at a sake brewer's compound in Iburihashi-machi, Kaga City, Ishikawa Prefecture, and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 26 December 2005. It stands west of the rice-steaming house along the south boundary, with its ridge running east to west.

The single-storey Dozo-zukuri building measures 6 by 5 Ken bays, with a building area of 99 square metres, under a Kirizuma-zukuri roof of Sangawara-buki tiles. It has two entrances, one at the eastern end of the north face and one at the northern end of the east face.

Polishing, grinding away the outer layers of brown rice, is the first step in making sake. The Hashimoto Sake Brewery Former Rice Mill shows a Taisho-era brewer giving that task a building of its own at the back of the lot.

Why It Was Registered

The Hashimoto Sake Brewery Former Rice Mill was registered as difficult to reproduce. The Agency for Cultural Affairs points to its unusual construction: a clay store 2 bays deep on the south side and a clay store 3 bays deep with a truss roof frame on the north side were joined and covered by a single roof.

Two bays and three bays together make the building's 5-bay depth. Two stores of different width and roof framing were set side by side under one gable, so that from outside they read as one. The wider trussed space on the north was probably needed to house milling machinery.

What to Look For

At first glance this is an ordinary gabled clay store. Look carefully at the gable ends, though, and you may find places where wall thickness or openings change between the southern 2 bays and the northern 3. Finding the seam where two buildings became one is the way to read it.

The entrances are on the north and east, none on the south. The south side faces the edge of the lot, and the doors face the rice-steaming house to the north.

Visiting

The Hashimoto Sake Brewery Former Rice Mill stands along the south boundary, inside the grounds, and from the public road little more than part of its roof can be seen. The property is private and cannot be entered without the owner's permission.

Plans to open the compound as a private art museum have been reported, but whether this building will be open and whether photography is allowed could not be confirmed as of September 2026. Directions and general visiting conditions are on the Hashimoto Sake Brewery page.