Higashi Brewery Ryokujuan

Higashi Brewery Ryokujuan: A Formal Guest Room on the Garden

The Higashi Brewery Ryokujuan (東酒造場緑寿庵, Higashi Shuzōjō Ryokujuan) is a single-storey wooden reception building from 1948 in the northwest corner of 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.

The brewery describes Ryokujuan as a combined waiting room and guest room: a place where guests gathered before going on to the Keishoan tea room, and a formal room for entertaining in its own right. It has a building area of 46 square meters and a roof of tile and copper.

The sources disagree on its date. The Agency for Cultural Affairs database gives 1948, while the brewery says the tea room, the sukiya-style building and the garden were all made together in 1951. This page follows the Agency's date.

Why Ryokujuan Was Registered

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

Its hip-and-gable roof of pantiles runs north to south, and a deep Tsuchibisashi eave wraps the garden sides to the south and east. Toward the north end of the east side, a small entrance porch projects under its own hip-and-gable roof.

What the Agency for Cultural Affairs praises most is the main room facing the garden. It has a large Tokonoma alcove with a side alcove for shelves, a built-in writing bay (Tsukeshoin) with an opening in the bell-shaped katōmado form, and a coffered ceiling raised on a gentle cove. The Agency calls the result a space of real formality.

What to Look For at the Higashi Brewery Ryokujuan

In the main room, the opening of the tsukeshoin deserves a close look. The katōmado outline, with its pointed, flame-like top, came into Japanese building through Buddhist temples, and its curve stands out among the straight lines of a tatami room.

The ceiling rises on a curved cove before the coffered grid begins. At Ryokujuan the cove is kept shallow, lifting the ceiling enough to feel generous without losing the calm of a sitting room.

Outside, the deep eave running along the south and east marks the edge of the garden. Seen from inside, it works like a frame around the view.

Seeing the Higashi Brewery Ryokujuan

The Higashi Brewery Ryokujuan 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. Seeing the main room and its writing bay will have to wait for the reopening.

Check the brewery's announcements for reopening dates and events held in the room. Directions and booking details are on the Higashi Brewery page.