The Storehouse Across the Garden
The Takeshige Honke Sake Brewery and Takeshige Family Residence Document Storehouse (武重本家酒造及び武重家住宅文庫蔵) is an earthen storehouse of 1912 in the estate of a working sake brewery on the old Nakasendō road in Motai, Saku City, Nagano Prefecture, listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 26 September 2000. It is a two-storey building of Dozo-zukuri construction under a tiled roof with a floor area of 47 square metres.
It stands north of the inner drawing room, across a landscaped garden, and connects to the north-western corner of the main house. The ridge runs east to west under a set-on (okiyane) roof of Sangawara-buki pantiles, and a small porch, the kuramae, projects from the eastern gable end. The plan is four bays by two and a half, about 7 metres by 4.5 metres. The surrounds of the doors and windows are finished in black plaster, and the band beneath the eaves, the hachimaki, carries a moulded profile.
A bunko-gura is a storehouse for books, documents and family records. The Takeshige, brewing since 1868, rebuilt their main house in 1909 and added this storehouse three years later, in Meiji 45, the year the era changed to Taisho in July. It is a building of the last months of Meiji.
Why It Is Listed
The register lists the storehouse under the criterion of serving as a model of design, and the Agency's commentary singles out the black-plastered openings and the moulded cornice as marks of careful workmanship. The hachimaki is the band that runs beneath the eaves of a storehouse; giving it a stepped, curved profile is among the more refined treatments a cellar can receive.
White walls with black openings are one of the settled forms of storehouse design. The Takeshige Honke Sake Brewery and Takeshige Family Residence Document Storehouse is not a fermentation cellar but a strongroom for the family's papers and valuables, and its details were finished to match that role.
Its position matters too. The Agency notes that, with the miso storehouse beside it to the east, this building marks the boundary between the residential grounds and the brewing yard. Its south face looks onto the family's garden; its north face meets the working side of the estate. Seen from the inner drawing room, the view across the garden ends at this wall of white and black.
What to Look For
The storehouse lies inside the estate, north of the drawing room, and cannot be seen from the road. If you enter the grounds on the open day you will see its north side from the brewing yard. The silhouette of the set-on roof and the moulded band running along the top of the white wall can be made out from there.
The porch on the eastern gable shelters the entrance. Between it and the western gable of the miso storehouse is the rear gate, the passage between the household and the brewery. That gap beside the Takeshige Honke Sake Brewery and Takeshige Family Residence Document Storehouse is one of the keys to the plan of the estate.
The black-plastered openings, if they face the garden, belong to the view from the drawing room. The building's most finished face is turned toward the family, and what a visitor sees is its back. Even so, the shadow the moulded cornice throws beneath the eaves is visible from outside.
Visiting and Getting There
The Takeshige Honke Sake Brewery and Takeshige Family Residence Document Storehouse stands inside the estate north of the inner drawing room and is not visible from the old Nakasendō. On the open day its north side, set-on roof and moulded cornice can be seen from the brewing yard. The garden-facing south side and the interior are private.
The Takeshige compound is both residence and brewery, and its interiors are not open as a rule. Visitors may enter the grounds to buy sake at the office and shop on weekdays from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; the brewery is closed on weekends, national holidays, at New Year and during the old-calendar Bon holiday. The cellars, including the fermentation storehouses, open once a year around the spring equinox (usually 20 or 21 March) for tours and tastings, and for the 2026 open day a chartered bus was provided from Sakudaira Station. Reservation-only tastings held in a renovated cellar sometimes include a guided walk, so check the official site for dates.
To get there, ride the Hokuriku Shinkansen to Sakudaira, then a Chikuma Bus toward Mochizuki and Ashida to the Motai-iriguchi stop, about two minutes' walk from the gate. Because the bus operates on weekdays only, weekend visitors should budget about 30 minutes and 15 kilometres by taxi or car from Sakudaira. The Saku and Yunomaru interchanges on the Joshin-etsu Expressway are each about 30 minutes away. Taking photographs from the old Nakasendō is fine; inside the compound, follow staff instructions during open events.
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Q&A
- When was the Takeshige Honke Sake Brewery and Takeshige Family Residence Document Storehouse built?
- In 1912 (Meiji 45), three years after the main house was rebuilt and in the final months of the Meiji era.
- What was the document storehouse for?
- It is a bunko-gura, a strongroom for books, documents and family records: a two-storey earthen storehouse of 47 square metres with a set-on tiled roof and a porch on the east gable.
- What is special about its design?
- The surrounds of its openings are finished in black plaster and the band beneath the eaves carries a moulded profile, both marks of careful work that set it apart from the plainer cellars.
- Can visitors see the document storehouse?
- Not from the road. On the open day its north side can be seen from the brewing yard. The interior and the garden side are private.
- Why was it registered?
- It was registered on 26 September 2000 under the criterion of serving as a model of design, for its black plaster and moulded cornice and for its role, with the miso storehouse, in marking the line between residence and brewery.
Basic Information
| Name | Takeshige Honke Sake Brewery and Takeshige Family Residence Document Storehouse |
|---|---|
| Location | 2179 Higashimachi, Motai, Saku City, Nagano Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure) |
| Year Designated | Registered 26 September 2000 |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Earthen-wall construction (dozo-zukuri), 2 storeys, tiled roof, floor area 47 square metres (4 by 2 and a half bays) |
| Owner | Not recorded in the ACA database (within the Takeshige family estate) |
| Public Access | Not open to the public (working brewery and private home); shop entry weekdays 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; interiors on the open day around the spring equinox |
References
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, National Cultural Properties Database: 武重本家酒造及び武重家住宅文庫蔵
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00001789
- Saku City: Motai Ai-no-shuku (Nakasendo rest station)
- https://www.city.saku.nagano.jp/kanko/kanko/spot/nakasendo/motaiainoshuku/motaiainoshuku.html
- Takeshige Honke Sake Brewery, official website
- https://takeshige-honke.jp/
- Shinshu Tateshina Tourism Association: Takeshige Honke Sake Brewery
- https://shirakabakogen.jp/spot/takeshiga_honke_syuzo
Last verified: 2026.09.10