Bitchuya Koso Sake Brewery

What Is the Bitchuya Koso Sake Brewery?

The Bitchuya Koso Sake Brewery (備中屋高祖酒造, Bitchūya Kōso Shuzō) in the Sekimachi quarter of Ushimado, Setouchi City, Okayama Prefecture, is the original brewery and family seat of Kouso Shuzo Co., Ltd., a sake maker founded in 1830, and four of its structures were entered on the national register as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties in 2007.

The four are the Main House, the Zashikigura (a storehouse with a formal tatami room inside), the Well and Washing Area, and the Chimney. A note on the name, since it trips up even Japanese readers: 高祖 is read Kōso, not Takaso. Both the Agency for Cultural Affairs database and the company itself use Kōso. Bitchūya, literally "the Bitchū house," is the family's trading name.

According to the company, the Bitchuya house had been in business as money changers and merchants before it bought a brewing license in 1830, at the height of Ushimado's prosperity as a Seto Inland Sea port, one where Korean diplomatic missions of the Edo period also called. The sake it has made ever since is sold as Senju, and that name still appears near the top of the chimney.

Today the company's head brewery, Senju-gura, stands in the Konoura district opposite the Ushimado branch office of Setouchi City. What survives in Sekimachi is the founding site: a latticed house front, white-walled storehouses and a red-brick chimney, grouped together in the old streets near the harbor.

How the Site Is Laid Out

The four registered structures of the Bitchuya Koso Sake Brewery span about a century of building.

• Zashikigura: Tenpō era (1830 to 1844), the oldest, a 2-story storehouse in the Dozo-zukuri fire-resistant style
• Main House: mid-Meiji period, a 2-story timber residence with an Irimoya-zukuri hip-and-gable roof
• Well and Washing Area: early Shōwa period, a stone-lined brewing well and a mortar-finished washing floor
• Chimney: around 1932, red brick, about 15 meters tall

The plan makes sense once you know where each piece sits. The Main House takes the northeast corner of the lot and faces the road to the south. The Zashikigura runs along the west edge, linked to the back of the house by a covered passage and a small single-story anteroom. The well sits near the middle of the lot, with the washing area just north of it and the chimney north again. The Agency's description adds that a pressing storehouse, not one of the four, stands north of the Zashikigura, with the well to its east. Living and guest spaces face the street and the west side; the water and fire of brewing were kept in the interior of the lot.

All four were registered on October 2, 2007, and officially announced on October 22 that year, under register numbers 33-0163 (Main House), 33-0164 (Zashikigura), 33-0166 (Well and Washing Area) and 33-0167 (Chimney). Each was listed under the same criterion: it contributes to the historic landscape of the country. In other words, the value lies as much in how the brewery shapes the look of a port town as in any single building.

Reading the Bitchuya Koso Sake Brewery from the Street

Everything at the Bitchuya Koso Sake Brewery is seen from the public road. Start on the south side, in front of the Main House, where the upper floor shows Namako-kabe (walls faced with square tiles and raised white joints) set against black plaster, above a latticed ground floor.

Then step back and look over the roofs for the chimney. At roughly 15 meters it clears the townscape and can be picked out from the harbor side as well. The Zashikigura and the well are on the west side and deep inside the lot, so only glimpses are possible from outside.

Visiting and Getting There

The Bitchuya Koso Sake Brewery is private company property. As of September 25, 2026, neither Setouchi City nor the company announces any public opening of the buildings. Please view and photograph them only from the road and do not enter the grounds.

Brewery tours are handled not here but at the head brewery, Senju-gura, in Konoura, by reservation and for groups of up to 30.

By public transport, take a bus bound for Ushimado from Oku Station on the JR Akō Line. It is about 20 minutes to Konoura (Ushimado Shisho-mae), and the Sekimachi site lies near the Ushimado terminus a little farther on. Drivers can use the Setouchi interchange of the Okayama Blue Line, but no visitor parking is signposted at the Sekimachi buildings.