Shioya Brewery Tezukuri Storehouse

What the Shioya Brewery Tezukuri Storehouse Is

The Shioya Brewery Tezukuri Storehouse (塩屋醸造手造蔵, Shioya Jōzō Tezukurigura) is a late Edo brewing storehouse at 537 Oaza Suzaka, Suzaka City, Nagano Prefecture, standing at the west edge of the Shioya miso and soy sauce brewery, and was listed as Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 15 May 2007. It is a two-storey timber building with a gabled pantile roof and a footprint of 122 square metres, and it contains 2 brick-built koji rooms.

It faces east, immediately south of the soy sauce storehouse, and measures 6 bays by 6, close to square in plan. The outer walls are finished with a middle coat of plaster, and the front has a doorway sheltered by a small roof.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs dates the main structure to the late Edo period, with alterations in 1985. The 2 koji rooms inside are later, added in the late Meiji era.

Why It Was Listed

The Shioya Brewery Tezukuri Storehouse was listed for its contribution to the historic landscape. The Agency for Cultural Affairs notes its size and its role as one of the elements that make up the brewery's townscape.

What makes it distinctive is the brick koji rooms tucked inside a timber storehouse. Making koji, the mould culture at the heart of miso and soy sauce, needs a room held at a steady temperature and humidity. Rather than replace a late Edo building, the brewers built brick rooms within it in the late Meiji era. The storehouse holds the layers of that adaptation in one shell.

Only three of the ten listed buildings go back to the late Edo period: the Tezukuri, Moromi and Miso storehouses, all of them brewing buildings. The oldest layer of the Shioya premises lies in the places where the miso and soy sauce are made and matured.

What to Look For

According to the owners, once you pass under the great noren curtain a screen of rock stands directly ahead, with the Shioya Brewery Tezukuri Storehouse on the right. It is the first storehouse you see on entering, its plastered walls and sheltered doorway standing like a marker at the threshold of the brewery.

Notice how nearly square it is, 6 bays each way. On a site dominated by long, narrow storehouses, a deep box of a building is unusual, and inside that two-storey volume it holds a working space, the koji rooms.

The brick rooms date from the late Meiji era, the years when Suzaka's silk boom was bringing brick factories and warehouses to the town. The name tezukuri, handmade, suggests the hands-on stages of preparation took place here, but the published sources do not spell out exactly which steps.

Visiting

The Shioya Brewery Tezukuri Storehouse is named in the owners' virtual tour, and they state that each storehouse is opened on request with a booking. The free tour of about 30 minutes, however, centres on the Miso and Soy Sauce storehouses, and access to the Tezukuri Storehouse or its koji rooms depends on the day's work. If you want to, say so when you book (checked 27 September 2026).

The exterior comes into view on your right just after you enter the premises. It is hard to see from the city road.

We found no statement on photography in the official information (checked 27 September 2026). The koji rooms are a controlled workspace, so ask the guide before even looking in.

Directions, shop hours and how to book the brewery tour are covered on the Shioya Brewery page.