From Herb to Bottle
Attached to the north of the main house, the preparation storehouse is where the raw ingredients of the tonic sake became a finished, bottled product. It is a two-storey plaster building of about 159 square metres, running north to south under a gabled pantile roof, with a lean-to on the north forming the entrance.
The plan reads like a small factory floor. A central corridor runs through the ground level, with a room for storing crude drugs and a compounding room on the west and a bottling area on the east. Upstairs held an inspection room and material stores. The building dates from 1926.
The Apothecary Side of the Business
The saffron sake was sold as a health tonic, and behind that claim lay real handling of botanicals: saffron, cinnamon bark, clove, liquorice and other ingredients compounded to a family recipe. The preparation storehouse is where that side of the work happened, the point at which stored herbs were measured, combined and filled into bottles for sale.
Overhead, the roof is carried on a queen-post truss spanning six ken across, a Western-influenced timber frame that opens up the space below. The register lists the building for its part in the historic landscape and describes it, like the brewing storehouse, as essential to producing the medicinal sake. Together the two back buildings show a business that was as much apothecary as brewery.
On a Visit
The preparation storehouse belongs to the working row behind the main house and is best seen as part of that group. From the grounds you can trace how it joins the house on the north side and where the entrance opens under the lean-to.
The compound is owned by the city of Nagaoka and opens for guided visits on weekends and holidays, with a long restoration gradually bringing more of the back buildings into view. A guide can describe the sequence of drug store, compounding room and bottling floor that shaped the interior.
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Q&A
- What happened in the preparation storehouse?
- It was where stored herbs were compounded and the tonic sake was bottled. The ground floor held a drug store, a compounding room and a bottling area, with inspection and storage above.
- What ingredients went into saffron sake?
- Accounts describe a family recipe of saffron together with botanicals such as cinnamon bark, clove and liquorice, blended into a tonic liquor.
- What is a queen-post truss?
- It is a timber roof frame with two vertical posts rather than one, here spanning six ken to open up the floor beneath. It reflects Western structural influence.
- How is it different from the brewing storehouse?
- The brewing storehouse held the tanks and raw stock; the preparation storehouse handled compounding, inspection and bottling. Both are described as essential to production.
- Can I go inside?
- The back buildings are being opened gradually as restoration proceeds. On a guided visit the interior layout can be explained even where access is limited.
Basic Information
| Name | Former Kina Saffron Sake Manufacturing, Preparation Storehouse (旧機那サフラン酒製造本舗調整蔵) |
|---|---|
| Location | 2292-1 and others, Settaya 4-chōme, Nagaoka, Niigata |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (registered 4 February 2021) |
| Construction | Taishō 15 (1926) |
| Structure | Two-storey plaster storehouse, pantile roof; building area approx. 159 m² |
| Count | 1 building |
| Owner | City of Nagaoka |
| Access | Grounds open on weekends and holidays; interior access expanding with restoration |
References
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, National Cultural Properties Database — Preparation Storehouse
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00013523
- City of Nagaoka, Former Kina Saffron Sake Manufacturing
- https://www.city.nagaoka.niigata.jp/kankou/miru/brewing/kina-saffron.html
- Settaya-Miyauchi, Kina Saffron Sake
- https://settaya-miyauchi.jp/kinasaffron/
- Nippon.com, Settaya district of Nagaoka
- https://www.nippon.com/ja/guide-to-japan/gu900174/
Last verified: 2026.07.09