Ayagiku Sake Brewery (formerly Izumiya Sake Brewery) East Sake Storehouse

The Oldest Storehouse on the Site

The Ayagiku Sake Brewery (formerly Izumiya Sake Brewery) East Sake Storehouse (綾菊酒造（旧泉谷酒造場）東酒蔵, Higashi Sakagura) is a two-story, earthen-walled Dozo-zukuri brewing storehouse from the late Meiji period, extended in the early Showa period, in Yamadashita, Ayagawa Town, Kagawa Prefecture, and was registered as a national Registered Tangible Cultural Property on March 2, 2006. Of the four registered buildings at Ayagiku Sake Brewery, it is the oldest.

The East Sake Storehouse stands beside the Middle Sake Storehouse on its east side, also running north to south. It measures 29 meters long by 14.2 meters wide, with a building area of 472 square meters. That width is almost double the Middle Sake Storehouse next door, and seeing the two side by side makes the difference in bulk obvious.

Like the Middle Sake Storehouse and the Detached Tatami Room, it carries the words "formerly Izumiya Sake Brewery" in its registered name: it began life as a storehouse of the Izumiya brewery.

A Roof Swept Down on One Side

The East Sake Storehouse was registered as number 37-0305 under the criterion of contributing to the historic landscape. What the Agency for Cultural Affairs description brings out is the way the roof has been handled.

The main body has a gabled Kirizuma-zukuri roof in heavy Hongawarabuki tiling, and it is entered from the gable end, the arrangement called Tsumairi. The east slope of the roof, however, has been carried much further down than the west, stretching the building out to 14.2 meters wide. Because the eastern pitch runs longer than the western one, the south gable is not symmetrical.

To the north, a further storehouse extends toward the Ayagawa River. It has a gabled roof in lighter Sangawara-buki pan tiles, set a step lower than the main ridge. Its north wall is clad in vertical boards, and its gable is finished in Shikkui plaster pierced by four small windows. One registration therefore covers two quite different buildings: a heavy earthen storehouse under hongawara, and a lighter, board-clad storehouse behind it.

The national database dates the East Sake Storehouse to the late Meiji period with an early Showa extension, but it does not say which part is the later addition.

What to Look For

Stand on the road to the south and look at the gable of the Ayagiku East Sake Storehouse: the two sides of the roof are plainly different lengths. The right-hand, eastern slope comes down much lower. That is why the peak of the gable seems to sit west of the building's center line.

Compare it with the Middle Sake Storehouse next door. The Middle Sake Storehouse ends in a hipped-and-gabled roof; the East Sake Storehouse shows a plain gable with its entrance in the end wall. Both are earthen storehouses, yet each presents a different face to the street.

The lower northern storehouse can only be seen in full from the river side. With its board cladding and four small windows in a plastered gable, it looks almost like a different building from the white walls facing the road.

Visiting the East Sake Storehouse

The East Sake Storehouse is part of a working brewery. Its south gable and the long eastern roof slope are visible from the east–west road in front. The lower storehouse on the north side lies deep within the property and is hard to see from the road.

The interior and the north side can be seen only as far as the brewery shows them on its reservation-only tours. How much of the East Sake Storehouse a tour covers, and whether photography is allowed, is not published, so ask when you book.