Former Azumaya Sake Brewery

A Brewer's Shop-House and Two Late-Edo Storehouses in Miyako

The Former Azumaya Sake Brewery (旧東屋酒造店, Kyū Azumaya Shuzōten) is a onetime sake-brewing merchant house in Motomachi, Miyako City, Iwate Prefecture, whose late-Edo sake storehouse and pawn storehouse and late-Meiji shop-house were registered together as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on March 29, 2019.

Azumaya was the trading name of the family. According to Cinema de Aeru, the volunteer film group that now uses the brewery's storehouse, the family were merchants from Iwaizumi, inland in Iwate, who moved to Miyako in the fourth generation and started brewing sake in 1824. The sake storehouse is thought to date from about that time.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs introduces the shop-house as a former sake brewery at the heart of the old town and credits the pawn storehouse with giving the compound the weighty look of a wealthy merchant's house. Miyako City lists all three buildings as privately owned.

How the Former Azumaya Sake Brewery Is Laid Out

The shop-house faces west onto the Motomachi street. It is a two-storey Tsumairi building, entered from the gable end of an Irimoya-zukuri roof, with an earth-floored Doma along its south side and two rows of rooms to the north. The sake storehouse sits directly behind it. The pawn storehouse holds the northwest corner of the lot, facing south and turning its west gable to the street.

From the pavement you see the latticed front of the shop and, at the corner, the gable of the pawn storehouse with timber boarding along its base. The shop and the pawnbroking store met the public at the front; brewing went on in the large storehouse behind.

What Was Registered at the Former Azumaya Sake Brewery

The three buildings were entered in the 92nd round of registrations under numbers 03-107 for the shop-house, 03-108 for the sake storehouse and 03-109 for the pawn storehouse. Each was listed for its contribution to the historic landscape.

The agency dates both storehouses to the end of the Edo period and the shop-house to the late Meiji period. The shop-house was altered in the early Taisho years and again in 1973, and the sake storehouse was repaired around 1953. Building areas are 217 square meters for the shop-house, 363 square meters for the sake storehouse and 136 square meters for the pawn storehouse, so the brewing hall at the back is by far the largest.

Cinema de Aeru in the Former Azumaya Sake Brewery

Since December 2016 the sake storehouse of the Former Azumaya Sake Brewery has been the home of Cinema de Aeru. The project began after Miyako Cinemarine, the town's cinema, closed in September 2016 and left the Iwate coast with no permanent movie theater. Volunteers refitted the storehouse by hand as a screening room, and it also hosts concerts, exhibitions and rakugo storytelling.

It is not a full-time cinema. Screenings are held on scattered dates, and in 2026 the group has been running roughly one weekend program a month.

Visiting the Former Azumaya Sake Brewery

All three buildings are privately owned, and regular public access to the interiors of the shop-house and the pawn storehouse could not be confirmed. The lattice front of the shop-house and the west gable of the pawn storehouse can be seen from the street.

The way into the sake storehouse is to attend a Cinema de Aeru screening or event; dates are announced on the group's website and Facebook page. Please stay out of the living quarters and keep photography to the exterior from the street.

The nearest station is Miyako, served by the JR Yamada Line and the Sanriku Railway Rias Line. The Former Azumaya Sake Brewery is about 900 meters away on foot, a walk of around 12 minutes.