Higashi Brewery Keishoan

Higashi Brewery Keishoan: A Tea Room Beside the Brewing Rooms

The Higashi Brewery Keishoan (東酒造場桂松庵, Higashi Shuzōjō Keishōan) is a four-and-a-half-mat tea room built in 1952 at the Higashi sake brewery in Noda-machi, Komatsu City, Ishikawa Prefecture, and it was listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on January 8, 2009.

It adjoins the north side of the Koji Room and looks onto the garden west of the main house. The single-storey wooden building has a building area of 18 square meters. According to the brewery, work began in 1951 together with the garden, and the name recalls a great pine that stood in the garden at the time.

It is not often that a tea room stands wall to wall with a koji room. The brewery has used Keishōan for tea gatherings and seasonal banquets.

Why Keishoan Was Registered

The Higashi Brewery Keishoan was registered under the criterion for buildings that serve as a model of design.

Its roof is a hip-and-gable form with the ridge running north to south, covered in pantiles edged with copper at the eaves, and small copper-roofed canopies project on the north and east sides. The ceiling combines woven ajiro panels with rush matting. The Agency for Cultural Affairs praises the way light enters through shoji windows and the kininguchi, the tall "nobleman's entrance", to create a bright, airy tea room.

The brewery adds that the room has a sunken hearth laid out in the standard right-hand arrangement and follows the model of Yūin (又隠), the four-and-a-half-mat room of the Urasenke school. Three ceiling types, flat, lowered and sloping, give the small room variety and a sense of space. There is a nijiriguchi crawl-through entrance as well as the kininguchi, and the walls are plastered with chopped straw mixed in.

What to Look For at the Higashi Brewery Keishoan

Inside, look up first. Different materials, woven panels and matting, overlap with different heights to give a four-and-a-half-mat room an unexpected sense of depth.

There are two ways in: the low nijiriguchi, which guests crawl through, and the kininguchi, which can be entered standing. The Agency credits the kininguchi and the shoji windows with the room's brightness, a deliberate choice when many small tea rooms favor shade.

From outside, notice the copper trim along the tile eaves and the copper canopies to the north and east. Tile and copper together keep the little hip-and-gable roof looking light.

Seeing the Higashi Brewery Keishoan

The Higashi Brewery Keishoan was badly damaged in an earthquake, and the brewery is not showing it until repairs are finished, according to a notice checked in September 2026. Until then, the tea room is not included in tours.

Watch the brewery's announcements for reopening dates and tea events. Directions and booking details are on the Higashi Brewery page.