Moritami Sake Brewery

A Meiji Sake Brewery in the Middle of Iwadeyama

Moritami Sake Brewery (森民酒造店, Moritami Shuzōten) is a sake maker founded in 1883 in Iwadeyama, Osaki City, Miyagi Prefecture, whose seven buildings and brick chimney were registered together as Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 17 November 2015.

The premises lie immediately east of the garden of the Former Yūbikan, the academy where the Iwadeyama branch of the Date family schooled its retainers. The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes the site as rich in underground water, and the Miyagi Sake Brewers Association likewise credits the brewing water of Iwadeyama for the choice of location. The association says every stage from washing the rice to mashing uses soft water drawn from wells on the property. The house label is Moriizumi (森泉), and since around 1995 the fourth-generation head of the house has also served as master brewer.

The Miyagi Osaki Tourism Bureau notes that the shop, the rice-steaming house and the brewing storehouse are still used as they were built. These are not buildings restored for display. In winter the compound is a working brewery.

How the Compound Is Laid Out

The east side of the plot meets the street. Here the Store and Main House faces east; the kamaya, where rice was steamed, joins it on the west; and beyond that the brewing storehouse runs another 36 metres westward. Shop, steaming house and brewing hall line up in a single east-west axis that follows the order of the work itself.

North of the kamaya stands a brick chimney 16 metres tall. A flue from the kamaya's firebox feeds it, and on the flat townscape of Iwadeyama it marks the brewery from a long way off.

The family's rooms gather on the north side. A corridor leads north from the back of the main house to the Residence, and a second corridor continues to the Inner Room. The North Storehouse stands midway along the northern edge, facing the street there, and the Detached Room sits on its own in the northwest corner.

The buildings are not all of one date. The Agency's records place the Store and Main House, the kamaya and the brewing storehouse around 1883, at the founding; the Inner Room and North Storehouse in the late Meiji era; the Residence in the Taishō era; the Detached Room around 1935; and the chimney in the early Shōwa era. Rooms and storehouses were added over roughly half a century as the business grew.

Seven Buildings and a Chimney

All eight entries were registered on the same day, 17 November 2015, under consecutive numbers from 04-0112 to 04-0119. Each was listed on the same criterion: contribution to the historic landscape of the country.

The group comprises the Store and Main House, the Kamaya, the Brewing Storehouse, the North Storehouse, the Residence, the Inner Room and the Detached Room, plus the Chimney. What sets the site apart is that it keeps every part of a brewer's life on one plot: the buildings where sake was made, the one where it was sold, the rooms where the family lived and the storehouse where goods were kept.

Construction details, dimensions and what to look for in each building are set out on the individual pages listed below.

Getting There and Visiting

The nearest station is Yūbikan on the JR Rikuu East Line, a walk of a few minutes; the Miyagi Osaki Tourism Bureau puts it at about 3 minutes. From the Tōhoku Shinkansen, change to the Rikuu East Line at Furukawa. By car the brewery is given as about 15 minutes from the Furukawa interchange of the Tōhoku Expressway, and there is parking on site.

The shop opens from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and closes on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, according to the tourism bureau. On business days you can walk into the earthen-floored shop of the main house and buy sake.

Sources disagree on tours of the brewery itself. The Tohoku Tourism Promotion Organization says it can be visited by reservation outside the brewing season, while the Miyagi Sake Brewers Association lists brewery tours as unavailable and says the Showa Retro Museum on the premises is open to visitors on Saturdays and Sundays. The museum charges 300 yen for adults and 200 yen for children, according to the Tohoku organization. Whether you hope to see the brewery or only the museum, telephone Moritami Sake Brewery first on 0229-72-1010.

This is a working brewery and a family home. Ask at the shop before taking photographs inside the grounds. (Hours and fees checked 25 September 2026.)