The Oldest Dated Stone on the Estate
The Takeshige Honke Sake Brewery and Takeshige Family Residence Household Shrine Torii (武重本家酒造及び武重家住宅屋敷神鳥居) is a stone torii of 1827 standing before the household shrine 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. The register gives its height as 2.3 metres and its width as 2.8 metres; the accompanying commentary records 2.75 metres wide and 2.25 metres tall.
In form it is a myōjin torii, the common type with curved top rails, to which a daiwa, a collar ring, has been added at the top of each post. Torii with these collars are so often found at Inari shrines that the type is called an Inari torii. This one departs from the type in two ways: the top rail has only a slight upward curve, and each post rests on a base of two rounded tiers, the kamebara.
The year 1827, Bunsei 10, is more than forty years before the brewery was founded in 1868. Among the estate's 30 registered structures it is the oldest with a firm date, contemporary with the shop, the east and west storehouses and the gate house, all assigned to the late Edo period. The date confirms that worship has continued at the back of the estate since the Takeshige settled in Motai.
Why It Is Listed
The register lists the torii under the criterion of serving as a model of design and describes it, with the household shrine, as an element of a brewing family's compound. Beyond the torii stand the shelter and worship hall of the Hachiman shrine, rebuilt in 1930; a torii and a shrine a century apart together make the estate's place of prayer.
A kamebara is a rounded swelling, like a bun, at the foot of a post or a building. The Takeshige Honke Sake Brewery and Takeshige Family Residence Household Shrine Torii stacks two of them, a shape the Agency for Cultural Affairs calls unusual. With the restrained curve of the top rail, it preserves a provincial stonemason's own take on a standard type.
The shrine and its torii sit at a remove from both the working cellars and the family's rooms. A brewer's estate is a whole made of shop, gate, cellars, house and a place of worship, and this torii is the last of those elements.
What to Look For
The torii stands at the back of the estate north of the west storehouse and cannot be seen from the road. If you get inside on the open day, look north-west of the document storehouse for a stone gate. Check three things in turn: the collar rings at the tops of the posts, the flat-lying top rail, and the two-tiered bases.
Look up at the top rail and you will see that its ends rise only slightly, without the sweeping curve most Inari torii carry. The collar sits between the post and the lower crosspiece, and from the front it looks like a band tied around the head of each post.
The two-tiered bases are the part of the Takeshige Honke Sake Brewery and Takeshige Family Residence Household Shrine Torii most worth studying. Each post swells twice at the foot before it meets the ground. Two centuries of weather have worked on the surface, and if the Bunsei date is cut into the stone, finding it is part of the pleasure.
Visiting and Getting There
The Takeshige Honke Sake Brewery and Takeshige Family Residence Household Shrine Torii stands at the rear of the estate north of the west storehouse and is not visible from the old Nakasendō. Even on the open day around the spring equinox, how far visitors may go toward the residential side varies by year. Follow the day's guidance and do not touch or lean on the stone.
This is a brewery still making sake, and a private house. There are no regular interior tours. The compound can be entered on weekdays between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., when the office and shop are open for sales; it is closed on weekends, national holidays, the New Year period and the old-calendar Bon holiday. The one reliable chance to go inside is the annual open day around the spring equinox, usually 20 or 21 March, with cellar tours and tastings. In 2026 the brewery laid on a chartered bus from Sakudaira Station for the occasion. Reservation-only tasting sessions, sometimes with a walk through the cellars, are announced on the official website.
By public transport, take a Chikuma Bus from JR Sakudaira Station toward Mochizuki and Ashida and get off at Motai-iriguchi, a walk of about two minutes. The buses run only on weekdays, so at weekends allow about 30 minutes by taxi or car from Sakudaira, a distance of some 15 kilometres. Drivers coming off the Joshin-etsu Expressway at the Saku or Yunomaru interchanges should also allow about 30 minutes. You are free to photograph the streetscape from the road; within the grounds, ask the staff during events.
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Q&A
- When was the Takeshige Honke Sake Brewery and Takeshige Family Residence Household Shrine Torii erected?
- In 1827 (Bunsei 10). It is the oldest firmly dated structure among the 30 registered on the estate.
- How big is the torii?
- The register gives 2.3 metres high and 2.8 metres wide; the commentary gives 2.75 metres wide and 2.25 metres high. In round terms it is a stone torii about 2.3 metres tall and 2.8 metres across.
- What type of torii is it?
- An Inari-type torii, a myōjin torii with collar rings at the tops of the posts, but with an unusually slight curve to the top rail and two-tiered rounded bases under the posts.
- Can visitors see the torii?
- It is at the rear of the estate and cannot be seen from the road. On the open day, access to the residential side varies from year to year.
- Why was the torii registered?
- It was registered on 26 September 2000 under the criterion of serving as a model of design, as an element, with the household shrine, of a sake brewer's estate.
Basic Information
| Name | Takeshige Honke Sake Brewery and Takeshige Family Residence Household Shrine Torii |
|---|---|
| Location | 2179 Higashimachi, Motai, Saku City, Nagano Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure) |
| Year Designated | Registered 26 September 2000 |
| Quantity | 1 structure |
| Dimensions | Stone, height 2.3 metres, width 2.8 metres |
| 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屋敷神鳥居
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00001797
- 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