Where the mash is mixed and where it is squeezed
The Yamayoshi Soy Sauce Pressing House and Preparation House (山吉醤油圧搾場及び仕込場, Yamayoshi Shōyu Assakuba oyobi Shikomiba) are two buildings of the former Yamayoshi soy brewery at Imasaka in the Noma district of Shōdoshima-chō, Kagawa Prefecture; built in 1888, they were registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on February 9, 2005, under number 37-0259.
The entry covers a pair of parallel ridges standing east of the brewery's mash warehouse and running alongside it. The pressing house measures about 18 metres by 10, gabled, roofed today in corrugated slate. The mash-preparation house is smaller, roughly 14 metres by 8, gabled and covered in pantiles, with a lean-to eave carried along its eastern face. Both are single-storey timber structures, and the registered building area for the entry as a whole is 324 square metres.
Together with the mash warehouse, these were the core production buildings of the brewery. Everything a bottle of soy sauce goes through, apart from the year of quiet fermentation, happened under these two roofs.
Two rooms, two stages of the process
The shikomiba is the preparation floor. Steamed soybeans and roasted, cracked wheat are inoculated with koji mould and left to grow into a green-dusted culture, then combined with salt water and transferred into cedar vats. The ratio of brine to solids, the temperature of the room and the timing of the first mixing all shape what the mash will become. This is the moment the brewer has most control over, and after it the work becomes a matter of patience and stirring.
The assakuba is where that patience is cashed in. Mature mash is ladled into long cloth bags, stacked in layers inside a press box, and squeezed slowly under increasing pressure. What runs out is kiage, unheated raw soy sauce. What stays behind is a dry cake of pressed lees. The pressing house is the larger of the two buildings for a straightforward reason: presses are heavy, they need headroom, and the floor around them needs to drain.
Registration was granted under the criterion that the buildings contribute to the historic landscape of the country. The register number is 37-0259, in the 45th round of registrations. The database records the entry as a single unit even though the explanatory text describes two ridges standing side by side, which is a common convention where paired production buildings were registered as one working assembly.
Roofs that do a job
Both buildings carry a koshi-yane, a small raised monitor set along the ridge with louvres or windows in its sides. Soy sauce production generates a great deal of steam and heat, and a monitor roof lets it rise and escape without opening the walls to weather or to direct sun. The device is old and widespread in Japanese timber industry buildings, appearing on sake breweries, silk filatures and farmhouse kitchens. Standing in the lane below, the monitors read as a second, narrower building perched on top of the first.
The roofing materials differ between the two ridges, and the difference is worth a second look. The mash-preparation house keeps its sangawara pantiles, the ordinary clay tile of western Japan. The pressing house is covered in corrugated slate, an industrial sheet material that entered Japanese building in the modern period and is likely to represent a later re-roofing rather than the original 1888 covering. Wet, hot rooms are hard on tiles and on the timber beneath them, and roofs over presses tend to be replaced.
The lean-to eave along the east side of the mash-preparation house is another functional detail. It shelters the working strip where materials were carried in and out, and it keeps rain off the wall boards at the point where they take the most traffic.
Visiting
The Yamayoshi Soy Sauce Pressing House and Preparation House are production buildings in daily use by Shokin Shoyu, and we found no public opening. There is no visitor entrance or reception; if you hope to see inside, contact the company before you go.
From outside the grounds, the clues to look for are the monitor roofs on both ridges and the change of roofing, pantiles on the preparation house and corrugated slate on the pressing house. The site is private, and the working areas are off limits.
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Q&A
- What are the Yamayoshi Soy Sauce Pressing House and Preparation House used for?
- The preparation house is where koji and brine are combined into mash and loaded into the vats. The pressing house is where mature mash is wrapped in cloth and squeezed to yield kiage, raw soy sauce. The pair stand east of the moromi storehouse and formed the core of the brewery.
- Can visitors enter the Yamayoshi Soy Sauce Pressing House and Preparation House?
- No. These are working buildings used by Shokin Shoyu, with no visitor facilities. Contact the company in advance if you hope to see the interior; the exterior can be seen from outside the grounds.
- Why do the Yamayoshi Soy Sauce Pressing House and Preparation House have raised structures on their roofs?
- Those are koshi-yane, monitor roofs built to vent steam and heat. Brewing releases a great deal of warm, moist air, and a monitor lets it out at the highest point without opening the walls.
- How old are the Yamayoshi Soy Sauce Pressing House and Preparation House, and how big?
- Both date from 1888, like the moromi storehouse beside them. The pressing house is about 18 by 10 metres and the preparation house about 14 by 8 metres, with a combined registered building area of 324 square metres.
- Why are the Yamayoshi Soy Sauce Pressing House and Preparation House a single registration?
- The national database records the entry as 1 building, while its description speaks of 2 ridges side by side. Production buildings that worked as one unit were registered together.
Basic Information
| Name | Yamayoshi Soy Sauce Pressing House and Preparation House (山吉醤油圧搾場及び仕込場) |
|---|---|
| Location | 710 Ko, Imasaka, Noma, Shōdoshima-chō, Shōzu District, Kagawa Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure), register no. 37-0259 |
| Year Designated | Registered 2005/2/9 (Heisei 17) |
| Quantity | 1 building (2 adjoining ridges) |
| Dimensions | Pressing house approx. 18 metres by 10 metres, corrugated slate roof; preparation house approx. 14 metres by 8 metres, pantile roof; combined building area 324 square metres |
| Owner | Not listed in the Agency for Cultural Affairs database; the buildings are used by Shokin Shoyu Co., Ltd. |
| Public Access | Working brewery; no general admission. Exterior from outside the grounds; ask Shokin Shoyu about the interior |
References
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, Database of National Cultural Properties: Yamayoshi Soy Sauce Pressing House and Preparation House
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00004667
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, Database of National Cultural Properties: Yamayoshi Soy Sauce Moromi Storehouse
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00004666
- Shokin Shoyu Co., Ltd.: Company Profile (Japanese)
- https://shokinshoyu.jp/company/
- Shōdoshima Town: Modern Industrial Heritage of Hishio no Sato (Japanese)
- https://www.town.shodoshima.lg.jp/gyousei/kakuka/shogaigakushuka/2/1/3151.html
Last verified: 2026.09.26
