The brick chimney that marks the brewery
Yamayoshi Shoyu Kamaya (山吉醤油釜屋, the boiler 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.
The building lies east of the raw-materials store and north of the pressing house and mash-preparation house, separated from the latter by the watercourse that runs across the property. Unlike its neighbours it sits on an east-west axis: a long, narrow single-storey timber structure of about 18 metres by 6, gabled and roofed in pantiles, with a registered building area of 104 square metres.
A vent rises from the ridge slightly west of centre, and immediately to the west of that vent a brick chimney pushes up through the roof to a height of about 15 metres. The chimney forms part of the registered structure, and the Agency for Cultural Affairs entry describes it plainly as the landmark of the Yamayoshi brewery.
What happens in a kamaya
Every stage of soy sauce making that involves heat belongs to this building. Soybeans have to be soaked and then steamed until the protein is accessible to the mould. Wheat has to be roasted and cracked. Brine is prepared. After pressing, the raw liquid is usually given a hi-ire, a controlled heating that halts fermentation, fixes the colour and settles the flavour before bottling. All of it needs a boiler, sustained fire, and a way of getting the flue gas out.
The layout follows from that. The boiler house is a long, thin box rather than a broad hall, because a boiler and its firing floor are linear and want space at each end rather than in the middle. It stands apart from the mash cellars, with a watercourse between it and the pressing house, which is sensible in a district of timber buildings full of vats. The ridge vent lifts steam out of the room; the chimney carries combustion gas well above the roofline.
Registration was granted under the criterion that the building contributes to the historic landscape of the country. Its register number is 37-0261, gazetted on 28 February 2005 in the 45th round, and it was the last of the four Yamayoshi entries in numerical order.
Fifteen metres of brick, and why that is unusual
Brick reached Japan as a building material in the second half of the nineteenth century and was taken up first by government works, mills and breweries. A brick industrial chimney on a small island in the Seto Inland Sea, built in 1908, is a marker of how completely the modern factory idiom had spread by late Meiji. It was raised for a soy sauce works whose other buildings are entirely traditional in construction: timber frame, clay tile, charred cedar boarding, white plaster. Old craft below, industrial stack above.
Free-standing brick chimneys have not fared well in Japan. Unreinforced masonry performs badly in earthquakes, and across the country many were shortened, banded with steel or taken down altogether during the twentieth century. That this one still stands to something close to its intended height is part of why it reads so strongly from a distance.
The visual effect repays attention when you are actually walking the lanes of Hishio-no-Sato. The quarter is a landscape of low horizontals: long ridges, wide eaves, black wall boards under white plaster, repeated for building after building. A single vertical column of red brick cutting up through all of that is the one element in the composition that resolves the whole site into a place with an address. Late afternoon light on the west face of the stack is the moment to see it.
Yamayoshi Shoyu stopped brewing in 2002, and Shokin Shoyu, a neighbouring maker with long-standing ties to the family, took the premises over and resumed production in them. The buildings are private, in daily use, and not open to casual visitors; there is no ticket desk or visitor entrance. Shokin Shoyu has accepted cellar visits by prior arrangement on weekdays, so contact the company in advance if you want to see an interior. The chimney and the roofscape are perfectly visible from the public lane, and photographing them from the road is not restricted, though the yards themselves are working areas.
For a comparable interior that is set up for visitors, the Marukin Soy Sauce Memorial Museum stands in the same Noma district, open daily from 9:00 to 16:00 with a small admission charge. It is about three minutes by car from Sakate Port, ten from Kusakabe Port and thirty from Tonosho Port; the Olive Bus Sakate line stops at Marukin-mae, and the soy sauce quarter is laid out as a signed walking route from there.
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Q&A
- How tall is the chimney at Yamayoshi Shoyu Kamaya?
- About 15 metres. It is built of brick, rises just west of the ridge vent, and is included in the registration of the building. The Agency for Cultural Affairs entry describes it as the landmark of the Yamayoshi brewery.
- What was Yamayoshi Shoyu Kamaya used for?
- It housed the boiler and the heat-using stages of production: steaming soybeans, roasting wheat, preparing brine, and heating the pressed liquid before bottling. Those operations need sustained fire, which is why the building has both a ridge vent for steam and a tall chimney for flue gas.
- When was Yamayoshi Shoyu Kamaya built, and how big is it?
- It dates from 1908, the same year as the brewery's raw-materials store. The single-storey timber building runs about 18 metres east to west and 6 metres deep, with a gabled pantile roof and a registered building area of 104 square metres.
- Can visitors go inside Yamayoshi Shoyu Kamaya?
- 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 beforehand. The chimney and roof are clearly visible from the public lane at any time.
- Why does Yamayoshi Shoyu Kamaya stand apart from the other brewery buildings?
- It sits east of the raw-materials store and north of the pressing house, with the site's watercourse running between it and those buildings. Separating a boiler house from timber cellars packed with wooden vats reduces fire risk, and the east-west ridge distinguishes it from the north-south buildings around it.
Basic Information
| Name | Yamayoshi Shoyu Kamaya (山吉醤油釜屋) |
|---|---|
| Location | 709-2 Ko, Imasaka, Noma, Shodoshima Town, Shozu District, Kagawa Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure), register no. 37-0261 |
| Year Designated | Registered 9 February 2005; gazetted 28 February 2005 (45th round) |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Approx. 18 m east-west by 6 m deep; building area 104 m²; single-storey timber, gabled, pantile roof, with a brick chimney about 15 m high |
| 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; chimney and 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 Kamaya
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00004669
- National Cultural Properties Database, Agency for Cultural Affairs — Yamayoshi Shoyu Genryo-gura oyobi Choba
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00004668
- 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
- Japan Heritage Portal — Soy sauce cellars and stone tools of Hishio-no-Sato
- https://japan-heritage.bunka.go.jp/ja/culturalproperties/result/4568/
- Morita Co., Ltd. — Marukin Soy Sauce Memorial Museum
- https://marukin.moritakk.com/kinenkan/
Last verified: 2026.08.09