Mitani Seito Hane Sanuki Honpo Main House (Oshiba)

The Main House and Its Pressing Room

The Mitani Seito Hane Sanuki Honpo Main House (Oshiba), written 三谷製糖羽根さぬき本舗主屋（押し場） in Japanese, is the main house of a wasanbon sugar works in Umayado, Higashikagawa City, Kagawa Prefecture, built in the Taisho period (1912–1925), and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) on August 21, 2002 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency records a Taisho-period building enlarged around 1950, a two-storey timber structure with a tile roof and a building area of 190 square metres; registration number 37-0127.

Oshiba means "pressing room": according to the Agency, it is the middle of the ground floor, where balance-shaped presses stand in a row. The owner, a wasanbon maker that gives its founding date as 1804, explains that kneaded raw sugar is set in presses called oshibune so that the molasses drains out slowly. The oshiba is where that step takes place.

Set Back from the Old Road

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

The ridge runs north to south under a gabled roof, and the building rises 2 storeys. A lean-to along the east side makes that front read like a house with a low upper floor of the kind called tsushi-nikai. Toward the south the building drops to a single storey and the roof becomes a hip-and-gable (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency record does not say which part dates from the enlargement of around 1950.

Why It Was Registered

The registration criterion is that the building contributes to the historic landscape of Japan (Agency for Cultural Affairs). The Mitani Seito Hane Sanuki Honpo Main House (Oshiba) is 1 of 3 buildings on the site registered on the same day, with the sugar boiling house and the former cowshed, and together they keep the layout of a wasanbon workshop.

What to Look For

On the outside of the Mitani Seito Hane Sanuki Honpo Main House (Oshiba), look at the low eaves formed by the lean-to on the east side, with the upper wall showing above them. Further south the roof changes from gable to hip-and-gable and the building drops to a single storey (after the Agency's description).

The sugar boiling house is attached just south of the entrance to the oshiba. Its smoke vent and brick chimney mark where the main house ends (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

Visiting

The Mitani Seito Hane Sanuki Honpo Main House (Oshiba) stands on the premises of a maker that still produces wasanbon. No official information was found on interior access, tours or photography. The shop on the premises is open to customers; directions and opening hours are on the Mitani Seito Hane Sanuki Honpo page.