The building where the brewery kept its grain and its ledgers
Yamayoshi Shoyu Genryo-gura oyobi Choba (山吉醤油原料蔵及び帳場, also written Yamayoshi Shōyu Genryōgura oyobi Chōba), the raw-materials store and counting house of the former Yamayoshi soy sauce brewery at Imasaka in the Noma district of Shodoshima Town, Kagawa Prefecture, was built in 1908 and entered on Japan's national register of Tangible Cultural Properties on 9 February 2005.
It stands north of the mash warehouse, on the far side of the watercourse that crosses the property, with its ridge running north to south. The plan is close to square, about 8.2 metres by 7.7, and the building rises two storeys under a gabled pantile roof with a lean-to eave along the eastern face. The registered building area is 74 square metres, the smallest figure of the four Yamayoshi entries and the only one with an upper floor.
Two functions share that compact footprint. One is storage of the raw materials: soybeans and wheat. The other is the choba, the counting house, the desk where orders were written down, deliveries recorded and accounts settled. Production and bookkeeping under one roof is the normal arrangement of a family brewing business, and this building is where the commercial side of Yamayoshi Shoyu was conducted.
An island that had to import its beans
Shodoshima made soy sauce for four centuries without growing much of what goes into it. The island had salt, produced in quantity from the medieval period onward and at one stage second in output only to Ako. It had a mild, dry climate with long hours of sun, which suits koji cultivation. What it lacked was arable land for soybeans and wheat, and those came in by sea.
That is the reason a raw-materials store matters here. Grain arriving by boat had to be kept dry and free of pests until it was needed, and an upper floor gives better ventilation and separation from ground damp than a single-storey shed. The building was put up in 1908, two decades after the mash warehouse and pressing house, and in the same year as the brewery's boiler house. Late Meiji was a period of investment across the island; the brewing hall that now houses the Marukin Soy Sauce Memorial Museum, a short walk away in the same district, dates from 1908 to 1909.
The commercial context was substantial. According to the Shodoshima Soy Sauce Cooperative Association, the number of brewing households on the island reached about 400 in the years between 1878 and 1886, with annual mash volumes of some 35,000 koku, and shipments reached Kyoto, Osaka, Kobe, Hiroshima, Kochi, Ehime and Kyushu. A brewery of this period was a shipping and credit business as much as a fermentation workshop, and the ledgers kept at the choba desk were the instrument that held it together.
Reading the wall
Registration was granted under the criterion that the building contributes to the historic landscape of the country, with register number 37-0260, gazetted on 28 February 2005 in the 45th round.
The Agency for Cultural Affairs entry singles out one feature in particular: the exterior treatment matches the mash warehouse across the water channel. Vertical charred cedar boarding around the lower wall, white lime plaster above. Two buildings of different date, different height and different purpose, finished the same way so that they read as one property from the lane. This is not accidental. Brewing families in Hishio-no-Sato built over decades, and the consistency of the black-and-white wall is what gives the quarter a coherent face rather than a collection of sheds.
The lean-to eave on the eastern side shelters the working strip along the wall, and it also marks the entrance side, the face that faced the traffic of the yard. On a two-storey building of this size, the eave line also breaks up what would otherwise be a rather tall blank wall.
Yamayoshi Shoyu ceased brewing in 2002. Shokin Shoyu, a neighbouring maker with long family ties to the Yamayoshi household, took the premises over and restarted production there, and the site is known within that company as the Yamayoshi kura. The buildings are private and in daily use, with no visitor entrance and no general admission. Shokin Shoyu has accepted cellar visits by prior arrangement on weekdays, so anyone hoping to see an interior should contact the company in advance. Exteriors can be seen and photographed from the public lane, but the yards are working areas and should be left alone.
The Marukin Soy Sauce Memorial Museum in the same Noma district is the practical alternative for a visit without arrangement: open daily from 9:00 to 16:00 with a small admission charge, with displays of Meiji-period brewing tools and account books alongside a viewing gallery over a working fermentation cellar. It is roughly three minutes by car from Sakate Port, ten from Kusakabe Port and thirty from Tonosho Port, and the Olive Bus Sakate line stops at Marukin-mae.
- 📍 Plan Your Visit to Kagawa
- Find tours, activities & transport passes near Yamayoshi Soy Sauce Ingredients Storehouse and Accounting
- [ Naoshima Art Island & Kotohiragu Shrine Visit ]
Q&A
- What was the choba in Yamayoshi Shoyu Genryo-gura oyobi Choba used for?
- The choba was the counting house of the brewery, the desk where orders, deliveries and accounts were recorded. Sharing a building with the raw-materials store is typical of a family-run brewing business, where the office sat close to the point at which goods arrived.
- How large is Yamayoshi Shoyu Genryo-gura oyobi Choba, and when was it built?
- It was built in 1908. The plan is close to square at about 8.2 by 7.7 metres, and it rises two storeys under a gabled pantile roof, with a registered building area of 74 square metres. It is the smallest of the four registered Yamayoshi buildings and the only two-storey one.
- Why does Yamayoshi Shoyu Genryo-gura oyobi Choba look like the mash warehouse?
- Both use the same wall treatment: vertical charred cedar boarding at the base with white lime plaster above. The Agency for Cultural Affairs entry notes this shared finish, which ties the two buildings into a single streetscape despite their twenty-year difference in date.
- Can visitors go inside Yamayoshi Shoyu Genryo-gura oyobi Choba?
- No. The building belongs to an operating brewery run by Shokin Shoyu and has no visitor facilities. Cellar visits have been accepted by advance reservation on weekdays, so contact the company first rather than arriving unannounced. The exterior is visible from the public lane.
- Why did Yamayoshi Shoyu need a dedicated raw-materials store on Shodoshima?
- Shodoshima produced salt but very little grain, so soybeans and wheat had to be brought in by boat. Shipments arrived in bulk and needed dry, ventilated storage until they were used, which is why the store was given an upper floor rather than being a single-storey shed.
Basic Information
| Name | Yamayoshi Shoyu Genryo-gura oyobi Choba (山吉醤油原料蔵及び帳場) |
|---|---|
| Location | 709-2 Ko, Imasaka, Noma, Shodoshima Town, Shozu District, Kagawa Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure), register no. 37-0260 |
| Year Designated | Registered 9 February 2005; gazetted 28 February 2005 (45th round) |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Approx. 8.2 m by 7.7 m; building area 74 m²; two-storey timber, gabled, pantile roof with lean-to eave on the east |
| Owner | Not published in the Agency for Cultural Affairs database; the buildings are used by Shokin Shoyu Co., Ltd. |
| Public Access | Working brewery. No general admission; exterior visible from the public lane. Cellar visits have been accepted by advance arrangement on weekdays. |
References
- National Cultural Properties Database, Agency for Cultural Affairs — Yamayoshi Shoyu Genryo-gura oyobi Choba
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00004668
- National Cultural Properties Database, Agency for Cultural Affairs — Yamayoshi Shoyu Moromi-gura
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00004666
- Shodoshima Soy Sauce Cooperative Association — History of Shodoshima soy sauce
- https://shima-shoyu.com/history/
- Shokin Shoyu Co., Ltd. — Company profile
- https://shokinshoyu.jp/company/
- Shodoshima Town — Modern industrial heritage of Hishio-no-Sato
- https://www.town.shodoshima.lg.jp/gyousei/kakuka/shogaigakushuka/2/1/3151.html
- Morita Co., Ltd. — Marukin Soy Sauce Memorial Museum
- https://marukin.moritakk.com/kinenkan/
Last verified: 2026.08.09