A Warehouse Built From an Older Warehouse
Imazato Shuzo Shingura (今里酒造新蔵, also written Imazato-shuzō Shin-gura and meaning "the new warehouse of the Imazato Brewery") is an early Shōwa-period timber sake warehouse in Shukugō, Hasami Town, Nagasaki Prefecture, registered as a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 2 March 2006.
Walk north along the old road through Shukugō and the roofline gives the building away before anything else does. Every other warehouse on the site carries a kirizuma roof, gabled, with a triangle of wall showing at each end. The Shingura does not. Its roof slopes on all four sides in the yosemune form, a hipped roof, and it sits higher than its neighbours. Among a dozen or so brewery structures crowded along the Kawatana River, this one reads as the outlier.
The dimensions explain the height. The Agency for Cultural Affairs records a frame eighteen bays along the ridge by six bays deep, a bay or ken being roughly 1.8 metres, with a building area of 491 square metres. It is timber-framed, two storeys throughout rather than partly two-storeyed as the older warehouses are, and roofed in ceramic tile. No other building in the Imazato compound covers as much ground.
One detail in the official record deserves attention because it is offered as tradition rather than fact. The Shingura is said to have been put up using timber salvaged from a sake warehouse that was taken down. The database phrases this as something handed down, not something documented, and the article follows that caution. Reusing heavy structural timber was ordinary practice in rural Japan, where a good keyaki or matsu beam outlasted the building it was first cut for.
The brewery itself dates to 1772. Imazato Shuzo has produced sake in Hasami since then under the shop name Kamizakaya, and today sells under the label Rokujūyoshū (六十餘洲), an old expression for the sixty-odd provinces that once made up Japan.
Why the Shingura Was Registered
Registration came on 2 March 2006, with public notice following on 23 March. The Shingura carries registration number 42-0053 and was taken up in the forty-ninth round of registrations. The single criterion applied to it is the one used for buildings that contribute to the historical landscape of the country.
That criterion matters for reading the building correctly. Registration (tōroku, 登録) is not the same as designation (shitei, 指定). Designated Important Cultural Properties and National Treasures are chosen for exceptional artistic or historical value and come under tight controls on alteration. The registration system, introduced in 1996, works differently: it covers buildings roughly fifty years old or more that shape the character of a place, and it leaves owners free to keep using them. For a working brewery this distinction is the whole point. The Shingura still functions inside a business that makes sake.
Six buildings at Imazato Shuzo entered the register together on the same day. Three are Edo-period work, the shop and residence, the Honkura and the Nakagura. The product store dates to the Taishō era. The Shingura and the Araiba, the washing house, are the early Shōwa additions. Read in sequence, the six trace how a small Edo brewery kept expanding across two and a half centuries without ever demolishing what came before.
Inside, the structural work is worth describing. Round pillars, marubashira, rise along the ridge line at every third bay. The roof is framed with beams stacked four tiers deep, a system Japanese carpenters call shijū-bari, which lets a wide span carry a heavy tiled roof without intermediate walls. The result is a clear, tall interior volume of the kind a brewery needs for ranks of fermentation vats.
Shukugō itself sits on what was once the Kami-Hasami village highway, a post-road settlement. A fire tore through the district in 1879 and spared the brewery, which is why the Edo buildings survive at all. The Shingura came later, added to a compound that the fire had left standing. In 2004 the surrounding streetscape was named a townscape asset by Hasami Town.
What to Look For on a Visit
Imazato Shuzo is a working brewery, not a museum. There is no ticket office and no standing programme of interior tours. The buildings are private property in daily use, and visitors should treat them accordingly. What you can do freely is look: the warehouse group is visible from the old road and from the riverside, and the Shingura's hipped roof reads clearly from a distance.
The exception is the annual kurabiraki, the brewery open days held on a weekend in mid-April. In 2026 these ran on 18 and 19 April, 10:00 to 15:00 on both days, with free admission, limited-release sake including unpasteurised shiboritate, free tasting, food stalls, and a free shuttle bus from JR Kawatana Station. Dates shift year to year, so check the brewery's news page before travelling. Anyone driving is asked not to drink.
Photography of the exteriors from public roads is unproblematic. Inside the grounds during the open days, use common sense and ask staff if you intend to photograph working areas.
Getting there takes planning, because Hasami Town has no railway station of its own. From JR Kawatana Station on the Ōmura Line, the Kawatana-Hasami town bus runs into the town centre; the service replaced the previous Saihi bus route in April 2025. JR Arita Station on the Sasebo Line is about ten minutes away by taxi, and a reservation-based shared taxi links Arita and Hasami eight times a day. Long-distance buses from Fukuoka, Nagasaki and Sasebo stop at the Hasami-Arita interchange.
Most people arrive in Hasami for porcelain rather than sake. The town has fired Hasami-yaki for four centuries, and the kiln village of Nakaoyama, the Ceramics Park and the Hasami History and Culture Exchange Hall are all short drives from Shukugō. Pairing the two industries makes for a fuller day. Both grew from the same landscape, the same river and the same fuel supply, and the brewery compound shows what large-scale timber construction looked like in a district better known for its kilns.
For enquiries about visits, the brewery can be reached on 0956-85-2002.
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Q&A
- Can I go inside Imazato Shuzo Shingura?
- Not as a matter of course. The Shingura is part of an operating brewery and there is no regular interior tour. The grounds open to the public during the annual kurabiraki in mid-April. Outside that period, contact the brewery on 0956-85-2002 before planning a visit.
- What makes Imazato Shuzo Shingura different from the other warehouses on the site?
- Three things. It is the largest building in the compound at 491 square metres. It is two full storeys throughout rather than partly two-storeyed. And it has a hipped roof where every other warehouse there is gabled, which also makes it the tallest of the group.
- When was Imazato Shuzo Shingura built and when was it registered?
- The Agency for Cultural Affairs records the date of construction as the early Shōwa period without giving a specific year. Registration as a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property took effect on 2 March 2006, with public notice on 23 March 2006. Its registration number is 42-0053.
- Is Imazato Shuzo Shingura a National Treasure or an Important Cultural Property?
- Neither. It is a Registered Tangible Cultural Property, a separate and lighter-touch category created in 1996 for buildings that give a district its character. The system allows continued everyday use, which suits a warehouse still serving a working brewery.
- How do I reach Imazato Shuzo Shingura by public transport?
- Hasami has no station. Take the Ōmura Line to JR Kawatana Station and the Kawatana-Hasami town bus, or the Sasebo Line to JR Arita Station and continue about ten minutes by taxi. A reservation-based shared taxi also runs eight times daily between Arita and Hasami. During the April open days a free shuttle operates from JR Kawatana Station.
Basic Information
| Name | Imazato Shuzo Shingura (今里酒造新蔵) |
|---|---|
| Location | 641 Shukugō, Hasami Town, Higashisonogi District, Nagasaki Prefecture |
| Designation | National Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure); registration no. 42-0053; criterion: contributes to the historical landscape of the nation |
| Year Designated | Registered 2 March 2006; notified 23 March 2006 (49th registration round) |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Timber frame, two storeys, tiled roof; building area 491 m²; eighteen bays by six bays |
| Owner | Not recorded in the Agency for Cultural Affairs database; the building stands within the Imazato Brewery Co., Ltd. works |
| Public Access | Exteriors visible from the surrounding roads; grounds open during the annual kurabiraki in mid-April; no regular interior tours |
References
- National Cultural Properties Database, Agency for Cultural Affairs — Imazato Shuzo Shingura
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00005385
- Nagasaki Prefecture Cultural Properties Database — Imazato Shuzo
- https://www.pref.nagasaki.jp/bunkadb/index.php/view/419
- Hasami Town — National Registered Tangible Cultural Properties
- https://www.town.hasami.lg.jp/kiji0031441/index.html
- Imazato Brewery Co., Ltd. — Company Profile
- https://rokujuyoshu.com/company/
- Hasami Town — Transport Access
- https://www.town.hasami.lg.jp/kiji0032011/index.html
Last verified: 2026.08.20