Matsuoka Family Residence West Sake Brewery

A Shōwa Storehouse at the West Edge

The Matsuoka Family Residence West Sake Brewery (松岡家住宅西酒蔵, Nishi Sakagura) is a sake storehouse built in the early Shōwa era at the western edge of the Matsuoka compound in Hongō, Hidaka Village, Kōchi Prefecture, and registered as a national Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 2 March 2004. It stands alongside the East Sake Brewery.

It measures 7 bays by 4 bays and covers 98 square meters. The ridge runs north to south under a gabled Kirizuma-zukuri roof of pantiles. Its entrance is on the long side and is reached through the interior of the East Sake Brewery.

The Pressing House and the North and East Sake Breweries are early Taishō. The Matsuoka Family Residence West Sake Brewery is early Shōwa, the last storehouse to join the brewery.

Concrete Walls with Buttresses

What sets the Matsuoka Family Residence West Sake Brewery apart is its outer wall: reinforced concrete, stiffened by buttresses. The other storehouses are Dozo-zukuri, timber frames packed with earthen walls. Here the wall itself was replaced with a modern material.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes the building as evidence of how sake storehouse construction developed. With early Taishō earthen storehouses and an early Shōwa concrete one on the same ground, a visitor can follow a brewer updating the way he built within a single property.

The roof, all the same, matches the others: hidari-gawara, left-hand pantiles whose interlocking edge runs opposite to the usual type. The walls changed; the roofline stayed in step. It was listed for its contribution to the historic landscape.

A Discrepancy in the Record

The Agency for Cultural Affairs database gives two different accounts of the Matsuoka Family Residence West Sake Brewery. The structure field calls it a two-storey earthen storehouse; the description calls it single storey and states plainly that the outer walls are reinforced concrete.

No source found for this article settles which is right. This page follows the description, which is the more specific about materials and form, and the Basic Information table records both. If you visit, check the number of storeys and the wall material for yourself.

From outside, the buttresses are the best clue. Piers projecting at regular intervals from a concrete wall are not something an earthen storehouse has.

Visiting

The Matsuoka Family Residence West Sake Brewery stands at the western edge of the grounds and is hard to see from the lane; its interior is not open on a regular basis. Visit on an event day or arrange access with the Hidaka Sakagura Association.

Booking details and directions are on the Matsuoka Family Residence page.