Rear Drawing Room at the Takeshige Honke Brewery
The Rear Drawing Room joins the west side of the Main House, but it is older than the house it now adjoins. It is the zashiki, the formal reception room, of the earlier main house that stood before the present one was built, dating to the late Edo period (about 1751 to 1829) and covering some 93 square metres.
It faces the gate at the west end of the mise, the roadside shop along the Nakasendo. Its plan sets two rows of ten-mat rooms with six-mat rooms carried along the north, a veranda wrapping the south, and eight-mat and four-mat rooms set at a right angle where it meets the Main House.
A former Takeda vassal household that had farmed Motai for generations, the Takeshige turned to brewing in 1868 under their twelfth head, Tokuzaemon, and the trade has continued in the same buildings ever since. Motai sits on the old Nakasendo highway between the post towns of Mochizuki and Ashida, functioning as an aidonoshuku, an informal rest stop between official stations. White plaster walls run for the better part of two kilometres along its lanes.
Why It Is Listed
The register lists it under the criterion of being a model of its form. As a surviving reception suite from the earlier house, it preserves the layout and proportions of a well-to-do rural merchant's formal rooms, a rare thing to keep once a family rebuilds.
That it was retained at all, rather than cleared away when the new house went up, is telling. The family chose to keep the old zashiki and build around it.
Registered on the national list as a model of its form, it forms one part of a rare survival. Some thirty buildings here carry the Registered Tangible Cultural Property designation granted on 26 September 2000, a rare case of a listed complex that remains in daily production. Soft groundwater from Mt. Tateshina feeds a brewing regimen built on kimoto, an early technique that relies on airborne lactic-acid bacteria in the cellar to build the starter. Few breweries still work this way.
Seeing It Today
The interest of the room lies in its sequence of spaces, the ten-mat rooms opening to the veranda and the smaller rooms folded in at the join. It reads as a record of how a merchant household received guests before the turn of the twentieth century.
Three tanka by the travelling poet Wakayama Bokusui are carved on a monument at the entrance. He wrote fondly of the brewery's Misonotake sake, and a second label, Bokusui, now carries his name.
Because production continues year-round, the listed buildings are normally viewed only from the street. The one regular chance to step inside comes at the annual cellar opening held around 21 March. The neighbouring Osawa Sake Brewery keeps a small museum and offers year-round tastings, and the walk along Motai's walled lane rewards an unhurried pace.
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Q&A
- What is the Rear Drawing Room?
- The formal reception room of the earlier main house, kept when the present Main House was built and now joined to its west side.
- How old is it?
- It dates to the late Edo period, roughly 1751 to 1829, making it older than the Meiji-era Main House beside it.
- Can visitors enter?
- No. It is part of the private residence and working compound. The grounds open around 21 March each year.
- Why was it registered?
- As a model of its form, preserving the layout of a rural merchant family's formal rooms from before the rebuilding.
Basic Information
| Name | 武重本家酒造及び武重家住宅奥座敷 (Rear Drawing Room) |
|---|---|
| Location | 長野県佐久市茂田井字東町2179, on the old Nakasendo highway |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (registered 26 September 2000) |
| Count / Scale | 1棟; 木造平屋建、瓦葺、建築面積93㎡ |
| Period | 江戸後期 (1751-1829) |
| Owner | Takeshige family / Takeshige Honke Brewery |
| Access | Private working brewery; interiors not generally open. Grounds open around 21 March each year for the cellar day. |
References
- National Database of Designated Cultural Properties, Agency for Cultural Affairs — 武重本家酒造及び武重家住宅奥座敷
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00001784
- Takeshige Honke Brewery — Official site
- https://takeshige-honke.jp/
- Shinshu Tateshina Tourism Association — Takeshige Honke Brewery
- https://shirakabakogen.jp/spot/takeshiga_honke_syuzo/
Last verified: 2026.07.03