Mitani Seito Hane Sanuki Honpo

Mitani Seito Hane Sanuki Honpo

Mitani Seito Hane Sanuki Honpo (三谷製糖羽根さぬき本舗) in Umayado, Higashikagawa City, Kagawa Prefecture, is a maker of wasanbon sugar founded in 1804, and 3 of its Taisho-period buildings, the main house with its pressing room (oshiba), the sugar boiling house and the former cowshed, were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on August 21, 2002 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

Wasanbon is a fine-grained Japanese sugar. Cane juice is boiled down to a raw sugar called shiroshita-to, which is then kneaded on trays and pressed to drive out the molasses, again and again (Kagawa Prefecture Tourism Association). The maker says it keeps to the methods of its founding, and that its presses, called oshibune, are still in use after repeated repair and improvement.

All 3 buildings belong to Mitani Seito Hane Sanuki Honpo, and their registration numbers are consecutive: 37-0127, 37-0128 and 37-0129 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

Wasanbon and Umayado

According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs, wasanbon was successfully produced in the Takamatsu domain in 1808 by Shinbei (新兵衛) of Minamino village, now Minamino in Higashikagawa City, and white sugar from Sanuki came to be highly valued on the Osaka market.

Umayado, where Mitani Seito Hane Sanuki Honpo stands, lies below the Osaka Pass on the old border between the provinces of Awa (now Tokushima Prefecture) and Sanuki (now Kagawa). The plot is near a river mouth and set back from the Asan Kaido (阿讃街道), the road that linked the two provinces (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

Three Buildings, Three Steps in Sugar Making

The 3 registered buildings of Mitani Seito Hane Sanuki Honpo can be read in the order of the work. The former cowshed was built to stable the oxen that pulled the mill used to crush the cane. The sugar boiling house holds a brick furnace with 3 large pans in a row and 1 small pan. The middle of the ground floor of the main house is the oshiba, the pressing room, lined with presses (all after the Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The main house runs north to south at the centre of the site. The sugar boiling house is attached just south of the entrance to the pressing room, and the former cowshed stands on the plot to the west with its ridge running east to west (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

All 3 date from the Taisho period (1912–1925). The main house was enlarged around 1950 and the former cowshed was relocated in the early Showa period. The structure of each building is described on its own page.

Visiting and Access

The shop at Mitani Seito Hane Sanuki Honpo is open 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and closed on Tuesdays (the following day when Tuesday is a public holiday) and on January 1 to 3 (the maker, checked November 2026). The Higashikagawa City tourism website describes the shop as attached to the factory, in a storehouse-style building with old documents and tools on display.

No official information from the maker or the city was found on interior access to the 3 registered buildings, factory tours or photography. Anyone hoping to see the buildings should contact the maker in advance.

The maker gives Aioi, that is Sanuki-Aioi Station on the JR Kotoku Line, as the nearest station. The site is about 560 metres from the station in a straight line (calculated from coordinates, not a walking distance).

By car, leave the Takamatsu Expressway at the Hiketa interchange and follow National Route 11 toward Tokushima. A yellow signboard marks the site, and the car park entrance is on the opposite side of the road (the maker).