Hashimoto Sake Brewery Pressing House

The Oldest Building, Dated 1808

Hashimoto Sake Brewery Pressing House (橋本酒造槽場, Hashimoto Shuzō Funaba) is a sake-pressing storehouse built in 1808 at a brewer's compound in Iburihashi-machi, Kaga City, Ishikawa Prefecture, and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 26 December 2005. It is the oldest of the compound's twelve registered buildings.

It runs east to west, south of the stone storehouse and directly against the west side of the main house's earthen passage. The two-storey Dozo-zukuri store measures 10 and a half by 4 Ken bays, with a building area of 145 square metres, under a Kirizuma-zukuri roof of Sangawara-buki tiles.

A funaba is where fermented mash is poured into cloth bags, stacked in a wooden press box called a fune, and squeezed to separate sake from the lees. The building for the last stage of brewing opens straight off the main house's passage.

Why It Was Registered

The Hashimoto Sake Brewery Pressing House was registered as difficult to reproduce. Its date comes from an inscription on the metal fittings of the heavy clay door on the main-house side, reading an auspicious day in the seventh month of Bunka 5, a year of the dragon. Bunka 5 corresponds to 1808, and its zodiac sign matches.

The walls are elaborate. Posts stand every half bay around the perimeter, tuff slabs are set against their outer face, and a further layer of clay wall is built outside that and finished in white Shikkui plaster. Timber, stone and earth together made a fire-resistant shell that likely also kept the interior temperature steady.

What to Look For

The door facing the main house is the thing to see. The year and month of construction are cut into the ironwork of that thick door, so the building itself records a date more than 200 years old.

From outside, follow the long white plaster wall of the Hashimoto Sake Brewery Pressing House, 10 and a half bays from end to end, with its hidden layers of stone and timber. At the western end of the north face, the late-Edo storage house joins it at a right angle.

Visiting

The Hashimoto Sake Brewery Pressing House stands against the west side of the main house, 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.