Ayagiku Sake Brewery

A Brewery on the Ayagawa River

Ayagiku Sake Brewery (綾菊酒造, Ayagiku Shuzō) is a sake brewery in Yamadashita, Ayagawa Town, Kagawa Prefecture, that traces its founding to 1790; four of its buildings, the Middle, East and West Sake Storehouses and a detached tatami room, were entered on Japan's national register as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties in 2006. The address is 3393-1 Sakuramoto, Yamadashita, and the owner is Ayagiku Sake Brewery Co., Ltd.

The site sits right beside the Ayagawa, the river that gave the town its name. The road in front of the brewery runs east to west, parallel to the river, and the storehouses stand end-on to that road, each stretching north toward the water. Once you notice that river, road and buildings all share one alignment, the layout of the whole compound falls into place.

This is the old Yamada village district. According to the brewery, its paddies were chosen as the Suki saiden, the field that grew new rice for the enthronement rites of Emperor Taishō, and the brewing water is drawn from underground flow coming off the Asan Mountains on the Kagawa–Tokushima border. Rice and water within reach: that is the whole reason the brewery stands here.

What "Formerly Izumiya" Tells You

Read the four registered names side by side and they do not match. Three buildings, the Middle Sake Storehouse, the East Sake Storehouse and the Detached Tatami Room, carry the prefix "Ayagiku Sake Brewery (formerly Izumiya Sake Brewery)". The West Sake Storehouse is simply "Ayagiku Sake Brewery West Sake Storehouse". The names themselves say that three of the buildings once belonged to a brewery called Izumiya, and that the fourth arrived by a different route.

When and how the Izumiya brewery became part of Ayagiku is not recorded in the Agency for Cultural Affairs database or in anything the company has published. The brewery dates its own founding to 1790, but it does not explain how that date relates to Izumiya. We report what the records say and leave the gap open.

The records also disagree on ownership. The national database lists Ayagiku Sake Brewery Co., Ltd. as owner of all four buildings. The Kagawa Prefectural Board of Education's list of registered properties shows the three former Izumiya buildings as privately owned and only the West Sake Storehouse under the company. The prefectural list may preserve the situation at the time of registration; this site follows the national database.

As for the brand name, the brewery explains that "Aya" comes from the old Aya district, the Ayagawa River and Ayakuromaru, said to be a grandson of the legendary prince Yamato Takeru, while "kiku" (chrysanthemum) recalls a Chinese tale that wine steeped with chrysanthemum petals brings long life.

Four Buildings Registered on One Day

All four Ayagiku buildings were registered on March 2, 2006, and officially announced on March 23. Their registration numbers run consecutively from 37-0304 to 37-0307, and every one was registered under the same criterion: a building that contributes to the historic landscape of the country. The value lies less in any single design than in the way the brewery, as an ensemble, shapes its surroundings.

More than half a century separates the oldest from the newest. The East Sake Storehouse dates from the late Meiji period, with an extension added in the early Showa period. The Middle Sake Storehouse and the Detached Tatami Room are early Showa, and the West Sake Storehouse was built after the war, in 1950. Construction varies too: the Middle and East storehouses are Dozo-zukuri earthen-walled structures, while the West Sake Storehouse and the Detached Tatami Room are timber-framed.

Building areas are 318 square meters for the Middle Sake Storehouse, 472 for the East, 474 for the West and 33 for the Detached Tatami Room, 1,297 square meters in all. Three big brewing halls and one small room of about nine tatami mats: that contrast is itself a record of how a sake brewery worked, with production and hospitality sharing a single site.

How the Compound Is Laid Out

The easiest way to read Ayagiku Sake Brewery is to start from the Middle Sake Storehouse in the center. It presents its south gable to the east–west road. The East Sake Storehouse stands parallel on its east side and the West Sake Storehouse on its west, all three running north to south, so their gables line up along the road like the teeth of a comb.

The west face of the West Sake Storehouse looks onto the national highway, and it is the elevation you can take in most fully from outside the property. From the road on the south you face the Middle Sake Storehouse gable head-on, and walking east brings the East Sake Storehouse gable into view. The Detached Tatami Room lies southeast of the East Sake Storehouse, joined to the east end of the office, so it is far less conspicuous from the street than the storehouses.

Behind the East Sake Storehouse a lower-roofed storehouse extends north toward the river. Its north wall is clad in vertical boards, a very different face from the plastered gables on the road side. Each building has its own page with a closer look at what to see.

Brewery Tours and Getting There

Ayagiku Sake Brewery runs tours year-round, by advance reservation only. Tours take place between 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m., last about 60 minutes and are free of charge. The brewery closes over the New Year holidays and the Obon period in mid-August; for Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays, check first. Reservations are taken by phone (087-878-2222) or through the inquiry form on the brewery's website.

A tour begins with an introduction to the brewery's history and to sake making, including a short video, then moves through the old storehouses, the modern production facility and finally the brewery shop. The brewery notes that it may have to decline some dates depending on the season and the day's work. Drivers and anyone under 20 cannot join the tasting.

By public transport, the nearest station is Ayagawa on the Kotoden line, about 10 minutes away by car. Takamatsu Airport is about 20 minutes by car. There is on-site parking with room for large coaches, and the brewery asks larger groups to get in touch in advance.

The four registered buildings belong to a working brewery. Entering the grounds is possible only on a booked tour; at other times, the exteriors are seen from the public road.