Matsuoka Family Residence

A Village Brewer's Compound

The Matsuoka Family Residence (松岡家住宅, Matsuoka-ke Jūtaku) is the house and brewery compound of the Matsuoka sake company in Hongō, Hidaka Village, Takaoka District, Kōchi Prefecture; the business was founded in 1890, and twelve of its structures, built between the early Taishō and early Shōwa eras, were listed together as national Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 2 March 2004. The compound sits on slightly raised ground just west of the village center, a short distance from National Route 33.

At its height, around 1975, the company ran breweries in both Susaki and Hidaka and turned out 180 kiloliters of sake a year. Its label was Matsu no Midori, "green of the pine." In 1990 the family gave up brewing for flower growing, and the storehouses went quiet.

The listing nearly came too late. In January 2009, five years after registration, the owner told the village that the upkeep had become impossible and the buildings would have to come down. A group of residents organized a committee to save them, later renamed the Hidaka Sakagura Association, and the compound has since reopened as the Hidaka Sakagura Hall (日高酒蔵ホール). All twelve listed structures are still standing because of that effort.

Sources disagree on the age of the buildings. Hidaka Village's tourism page describes the old Matsuoka brewery as Meiji-era construction, and a Kōchi Prefecture feature puts the buildings at around 120 years old. The national database kept by the Agency for Cultural Affairs, however, dates all twelve structures to the early Taishō or early Shōwa era. The pages for the individual buildings on this site follow the Agency's dating.

Twelve Listings, Two Criteria

The registration numbers for the Matsuoka Family Residence run without a break from 39-0137 to 39-0148, a sign that the whole compound was surveyed and listed in one pass. On the domestic side are the Main House, the Main House Gate and Fence, the Annex, the Rice Storehouse, the Toilet and the Bathroom. On the brewing side are the Pressing House and the North, East and West Sake Breweries. Two boundary works bind the two halves: the stone walls, gate and fences that ring the property, and the Brewery Gate and Fence that divides it down the middle.

The registration system has three criteria. Three of the twelve, the Main House, the Main House Gate and Fence, and the Bathroom, were listed as works that set a standard for design. The other nine were listed for their contribution to the historic landscape. In other words, the house itself and the small outbuilding its builders took most trouble over were judged as design; the storehouses and walls were judged as the fabric of a working compound.

The dates tell their own story. The Pressing House, the North and East Sake Breweries, the Rice Storehouse and the Annex are early Taishō. The Main House, the West Sake Brewery, both gates and the two small service buildings are early Shōwa, and the perimeter walls were begun in early Taishō and extended in early Shōwa. The brewery came first; the family rebuilt its house afterwards.

Materials shift in the same way. Among the earthen-walled Dozo-zukuri storehouses, the West Sake Brewery stands on buttressed reinforced-concrete walls, the Bathroom is a small concrete box with a flat roof, and the boundary walls mix brick with concrete. Seeing traditional storehouse building and modern materials side by side on one property is the main reason to look closely at the Matsuoka Family Residence.

Reading the Layout

The first thing a visitor sees is the front boundary of the Matsuoka Family Residence: a stone wall laid in a tortoise-shell pattern of rock-faced blocks, carrying a brick wall above it. It gives a village house the bearing of a small estate.

The Main House stands in the middle of the property, with its own gate in front of the entrance. South of it, built against the front brick wall, is the tiny Annex, and the Rice Storehouse holds the south-east corner. Behind the house, on the north side, stand the Bathroom and the Toilet.

The brewing buildings are gathered to the west. The Pressing House runs east to west immediately beside the Main House; the North Sake Brewery lies behind it; the East Sake Brewery joins its front in an L; and the West Sake Brewery stands at the far western edge, alongside the East. The Brewery Gate and Fence, in the center of the site, separates the brewery yard from the family's living quarters, and its left-hand wing wall runs into the Annex.

Look up at the brewery roofs. The Pressing House and the North and West Sake Breweries are covered in hidari-gawara, "left-hand" pantiles whose interlocking edge runs the opposite way from the common type. The remains of a chimney, not part of the listing, serve as a landmark for anyone looking for the place.

Hidaka Sakagura Hall Today

The Matsuoka Family Residence now operates as the Hidaka Sakagura Hall, run by the Hidaka Sakagura Association. A converted storehouse serves as the main hall: tall-ceilinged, with a deep stage and sound and lighting equipment, and it is hired out for plays, live music, lectures and local gatherings. According to the prefecture's feature, the entrance to the hall occupies the space where sake was once pressed.

The busiest weeks of the year come in early spring with the Hidaka Sakagura Hina Matsuri, the village's venue for the Niyodo River Hina Corridor, a doll festival shared by six towns and villages along the Niyodo. Hina dolls donated by local families are displayed inside the storehouses. In 2026 the display ran from 21 February to 8 March, open 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., with admission of 100 yen and free entry for elementary school children and younger. Summer and autumn events are also held.

Event days are the easiest way to see the interiors, which are otherwise closed. Anyone travelling specifically for the buildings should check the calendar first.

Visiting and Access

The Matsuoka Family Residence is not open on a regular basis. The stone walls and fences can be seen from outside at any time, but a visit inside the compound must be arranged in advance with the Hidaka Sakagura Association, through the Hidaka Village Tourism Association's booking line (050-3204-1996) or by email (h.sakagurakai@gmail.com). The official site gives no viewing fee, so confirm this when making contact.

The official site posts no rules on photography either. Photographing the exterior from the road should raise no difficulty; inside, follow the instructions of the association's staff, and do not step through the gates uninvited.

The nearest station is Okabana (岡花) on the JR Dosan Line, about 3 minutes on foot according to the prefecture's feature. By car the compound is roughly 30 minutes from central Kōchi City, with temporary parking provided during events. Follow the signs from National Route 33, and the stone wall and brick fence come into view at the end of the lane.