Matsuo Sake Brewery Main House

A House Built for Receiving Guests

The Matsuo Sake Brewery Main House (松尾酒造主屋, Matsuo Shuzō Shuoku) is a single-storey timber house built in 1912 at Matsuo Sake Brewery in Nishihonmachi, Tosayamada-cho, Kami City, Kochi Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on July 1, 2003. It has a building area of 90 square meters.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes it as the part of the brewer's residence set aside for receiving guests. A country sake brewer's lot usually held the brewing storehouses, the family's living rooms and the business front together; at Matsuo the guest wing was placed at the front, toward the north of a corner plot facing the old highway.

A Hip-and-Gable Roof and Two Tiers of Eaves

The ridge runs north to south under an Irimoya-zukuri roof laid with pantiles. Lean-to Geya eaves project from the north and south sides.

On the north side, which is the front, the eaves step out in two tiers, and beneath them is an entrance fitted with a Shikidai, the low formal step where visitors of standing were received. Look up at this face and the horizontal lines come down in stages, gable, upper eave, lower eave, until they settle on the doorway.

The east side, facing the road, is finished in vertical boards (Tateita-bari). If the north front is where the Matsuo Sake Brewery Main House shows its formality, the east wall is a plain run of upright timber, and it is the side that passers-by on the east road see for longest.

Why It Was Registered

The Matsuo Sake Brewery Main House was registered as number 39-0075 under the criterion of contributing to the historic landscape of the nation.

In its note on the front gate, the Agency names the north face of the house, together with the gate, as a main element of the streetscape. The gate stands north of the shikidai entrance, so from the old highway the stepped eaves and the doorway sit framed within the gateway.

At 90 square meters this is a modest building, yet its roof and double eaves set the character of the north side of the corner. When it went up in 1912, the brewery had been operating for almost forty years, since 1873; the dates suggest that the brewing storehouses came first and the family turned to its guest-facing front later.

Seeing the Main House

The Matsuo Sake Brewery Main House stands inside the brewery grounds and is not open for casual entry. The brewery's tours, booked in advance, center on sake making, and the published details do not say whether the house interior is included, so ask when you book. Photography rules are not published either; check on the day.

From outside, the north face can be seen through the front gate from the old highway, and the east face from the road on the east. Step back a little from the gate to see how the two tiers of eaves overlap.