Mizuhosu (Onishi Family Residence) Former Bottling House

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

The Mizuhosu (Onishi Family Residence) Former Bottling House (瑞穂酢（大西家住宅）旧充填場, kyū jūtenjō) 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 at the centre of the Onishi vinegar works, just south of the main house, with its ridge running north to south. It covers 46 square metres and was repaired in the mid-Showa era.

Jūten means filling a container. The Agency for Cultural Affairs says only that the building carried out one stage of vinegar production, but its name suggests it was where finished vinegar was filled into vessels.

Its job has since changed. The Mizuhosu (Onishi Family Residence) Former Bottling House is now used as a room for brewing sake.

Why It Was Listed

The Former Bottling House was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape. The agency values it as one of the vinegar production buildings standing across the estate.

It is a single-storey building with a gabled pantile roof, Kirizuma-zukuri with Sangawara-buki, and a small attendant's room, the tsumesho, projecting from its northeast corner. The walls are plastered in Shikkui over a base of vertical charred-cedar boards. The plan gives the people working here a station attached directly to the work room.

The change in use neatly illustrates how this house makes vinegar. Mizuho Co., Ltd. explains that vinegar forms when sake ferments, so every batch starts with sake. A building that once handled a late stage, filling the finished vinegar, now hosts the very first one.

What to Look For

The feature to find on the Mizuhosu (Onishi Family Residence) Former Bottling House is the tsumesho at the northeast corner. A small room pushed out toward the main house may have served as a vantage point over the traffic between home and workplace.

The central position is telling as well. While most brewing buildings form a row on the west side, this one sits right below the main house, perhaps so that the family could keep an eye on the last steps before vinegar left the premises.

The sake brewed inside today will later turn to vinegar in cedar tubs. A Taisho building has changed its role yet still works within the same family's vinegar making.

Visiting

The Mizuhosu (Onishi Family Residence) Former Bottling House is an active sake-brewing room and its interior is closed (checked 17 September 2026). Hygiene requirements would make entry unlikely in any case.

Located south of the main house at the centre of the site, it is hidden by the house when seen from the north street, and the projecting attendant's room is inside the enclosure. If you hope to visit, contact the owning company.