Mizuhosu (Onishi Family Residence) Former Preparation House

What the Mizuhosu (Onishi Family Residence) Former Preparation House Is

The Mizuhosu (Onishi Family Residence) Former Preparation House (瑞穂酢（大西家住宅）旧仕込み場, kyū shikomijō) is a single-storey timber work building of the early Taisho era (1912 to 1918) in Nakamachi, Kashihara City, Nara Prefecture, entered on the register of Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 27 February 2023. It stands toward the east of the Onishi vinegar works, southeast of the main house, facing west with its ridge running north to south. It covers 74 square metres.

Rice washing and similar tasks were done here. Vinegar making at this house begins with washing and steaming rice, growing koji and brewing sake, and the Mizuhosu (Onishi Family Residence) Former Preparation House handled that first wet stage. It was repaired in the mid-Showa era and is now used as a storeroom.

Most of the brewing buildings line the west side of the site, but this one stands apart to the east. What fixed its position was most likely the well on its north side.

Why It Was Listed

The Former Preparation House was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape. The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes it as a vinegar production building forming part of the brewer's group of structures.

It is a single-storey building with a gabled pantile roof, Kirizuma-zukuri with Sangawara-buki, plastered walls in Shikkui and a base of vertical charred-cedar boards. The finish matches the other work buildings, but the plan does not. Where the building meets the well on its north side, the outline steps inward, as if the walls were making room for it.

Washing rice takes a great deal of water. A plan that hugs the well while leaving the well itself outside reads as a way to put drawing water and working indoors as close together as possible. The building's shape records its role as the brewery's wash house.

What to Look For

On the Mizuhosu (Onishi Family Residence) Former Preparation House, start with the notch on the north side. The missing corner of an otherwise rectangular plan shows up as a recess in the wall, and the well sits in that space. How building and well meet is the best clue to how the washing work flowed.

The west-facing front probably made sense too. To the west and southwest lie the former bottling house south of the main house and the rice storehouse, so the orientation would have suited bringing rice in and sending washed rice on to the next stage.

It is a storeroom today, but the white plaster and dark charred-cedar base keep their early Taisho appearance.

Visiting

The Mizuhosu (Onishi Family Residence) Former Preparation House is used as a storeroom within the brewery grounds, and its interior is closed (checked 17 September 2026).

Standing southeast of the main house, it is largely blocked by the main house and gatehouse when seen from the north street. The well and the notched plan are inside the enclosure and cannot be checked from outside. Ask the owning company if a visit to the grounds is possible.