Segawa Sake Shop

About the Segawa Sake Shop

The Segawa Sake Shop stands opposite the city hall on the road running west from JR Zentsuji Station at Kamiyoshida-cho, Zentsuji City, Kagawa Prefecture; its plastered shop of 1917 and east storehouse were registered as two Registered Tangible Cultural Properties (structures) in 2002 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

According to the Zentsuji City Digital Museum, the Segawa Sake Shop stands on the main street running from JR Zentsuji Station, opposite the city hall. It began in 1898 as a branch of the Maruo sake shop of Enai, Kotohira; the present building was raised in 1917, followed by north, west and east storehouses.

The museum adds that the shop once brewed its own sake, sold as Shidan-ichi ("best in the division") after General Nogi Maresuke, first commander of the army division at Zentsuji, praised sake offered at the Hachiman shrine on his return from the Russo-Japanese War. Brewing stopped late in the Second World War when rice ran out, but the shop has kept its traditional frontage.

Two Buildings

The main house is a plastered shop about eight bays wide with a low upper storey and mushiko windows, said to have been built by the master carpenter Onda Sadakichi; its long tiled hip-and-gable roof faces the street, and it was registered on February 14. The east storehouse, a gabled sake store adjoining it, has a namako-tile dado on its south gable and was registered on June 25 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

Visiting and Location

The shop is privately owned, and its business and interior access have not been confirmed; please view it from the street. The address is 1-4-10 Kamiyoshida-cho, Zentsuji City, on a street lined with old buildings (Zentsuji City). The station building and platform canopies of JR Zentsuji Station, registered in the same year, are nearby.