Maruo Brewery Raw Material Storehouse and Workshop

What the Maruo Brewery Raw Material Storehouse and Workshop is

The Maruo Brewery Raw Material Storehouse and Workshop (丸尾醸造所原料蔵及び作業場, Maruo Jōzōsho Genryōgura oyobi Sagyōba) is a single-story timber brewing building of 1932 in Enai, Kotohira-chō, Kagawa Prefecture, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2005.

It has two parts. The workshop stands south of the shop end of the Maruo Brewery East Main House, and the raw material storehouse lines up along the workshop's east side. The registration counts them together as one building, with a building area of 216 square meters. Of the brewery's four registered buildings, this is the newest.

Why the Maruo Brewery Raw Material Storehouse and Workshop was registered

The Maruo Brewery Raw Material Storehouse and Workshop was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape.

In its note on the West Miso Storehouse across the lane, the Agency for Cultural Affairs says that building, together with the raw material storehouse on the northern plot, gives the lane the look peculiar to a brewery. So while the main houses carry the street front, this building anchors the row of storehouses on the lane side.

It also keeps an early Shōwa working floor in a form that still shows the path from storing ingredients to processing them.

How the Maruo Brewery Raw Material Storehouse and Workshop is built

The workshop and the storehouse both have gabled Kirizuma-zukuri roofs with ridges running north to south, laid in Sangawara-buki pantiles. The two roofs sit side by side, east and west, their ridges parallel.

Under them is a timber King post truss. A central post rises from a tie beam, and diagonal members carry the roof load out to the walls, so the floor below can stay open without interior posts. That suits a building where raw ingredients are stacked and work goes on.

The storehouse measures 10 bays (about 18 meters) along the ridge and 4 bays (about 7 meters) across. It is split north to south by use: the northern end was once the rice store and the southern end is the koji room, where the mold culture essential to soy sauce and miso is handled. Storage and koji making run on under a single roof.

Visiting the Maruo Brewery Raw Material Storehouse and Workshop

The Maruo Brewery Raw Material Storehouse and Workshop is still a working part of the brewery, and we found no notice of interior tours. A koji room is also a space where hygiene matters, so do not try to enter. The exterior is seen from the lane between the northern and southern plots, facing the Maruo Brewery West Miso Storehouse. No photography policy has been published. Directions are on the Maruo Brewery page.