Sasaiwai Sake Brewery

Sasaiwai Sake Brewery

Sasaiwai Sake Brewery (笹祝酒造) stands on the old Hokkoku highway in Matsunoo, Nishikan Ward, Niigata City, and on August 6, 2025 its office building and brick chimney, together with the Sasaguchi family's main house, were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties (Agency for Cultural Affairs, Niigata Prefecture). With that day's registrations, Niigata Prefecture had 582 registered buildings and structures (Niigata Prefecture).

The Three Structures

Along the highway, the Sasaguchi Family Main House stands to the south with the office building just north of it, and the brick chimney rises east of the office (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The office building dates from about 1901, extended in the late Meiji era and in 1919; it shows a large gable and a half-hipped gable to the street, with a shop and offices below and brewers' quarters above. The hexagonal brick chimney, about 12 metres high, dates from the late Meiji era and is a local landmark. The Sasaguchi Family Main House of 1935 is a large hip-and-gable house with an Art Deco Western-style room (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency notes that the office building forms the brewery's grand street front and that the chimney typifies a sake brewery. Together they preserve the setting of a brewing family from the Meiji era to the early Showa era along the highway.

Brewery Tours

According to the Niigata tourism navigator, the brewery takes reservations for tours all year. Tours run on weekends and holidays from 10:00 a.m. to noon and from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m.; for weekdays, enquire by phone. The fee is 800 yen (free for under-20s), and tours start at the brewery shop.

It is about 15 minutes by car from Maki Station on the JR Echigo Line and about 20 minutes from the Makikata-higashi interchange of the Hokuriku Expressway, with parking for 30 cars (Niigata tourism navigator). The Sasaguchi Family Main House appears to be a private home, and no information on interior access was found.