Tsuji Honten West Storehouse

What Is the Tsuji Honten West Storehouse?

The Tsuji Honten West Storehouse (辻本店西蔵, Tsuji Honten Nishigura) is a 2-storey Dozo-zukuri storehouse of the mid-Meiji period (1883 to 1897) standing across the old Izumo road from the shop and main house of the Tsuji Honten sake brewery in Katsuyama, Maniwa City, Okayama Prefecture, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2014. Once used for storing sake, it now houses the brewery's shop and restaurant under the name NISHIKURA.

The Tsuji Honten West Storehouse has a footprint of 136 square meters and a Kirizuma-zukuri gable roof of Sangawara-buki tiles. The Agency for Cultural Affairs records a renovation in 1998. The brewery's website says it converted a former storage building into its Nishikura restaurant in 1989, so the building's life as a place to eat and shop began before that renovation.

Why the Tsuji Honten West Storehouse Was Registered: Its Roof Frame

The Tsuji Honten West Storehouse was registered for contributing to the historic landscape. What the Agency singles out is inside: a roof frame of heavy beams stacked tier upon tier, which it says recalls the building's days as part of the brewery.

Storing sake meant room for heavy casks and vats and a large roof to cover them, and the size and stacking of these beams answer to that need. The brewery describes the interior as a space held up by a zelkova central pillar and great pine beams.

What to Look For on the Tsuji Honten West Storehouse

The walls of the Tsuji Honten West Storehouse are thick-plastered in the ōkabe manner, with the posts buried inside the wall. Plaster seals the underside of the eaves too, and a drip ledge, or mizukiri, runs across the wall to throw rainwater clear, drawing a horizontal line across the building.

The Namako-kabe tiling appears not only at the base but also at the height of the upper-floor windows and up the corners. Look up at the street side, which faces east, and the grid frames the white wall above, below and at the edges, tightening the mass of the storehouse.

Inside, you can see the pillar and beam frame at close range. Of the nine registered Tsuji Honten buildings, the Tsuji Honten West Storehouse is the only one that anyone can enter during opening hours, which makes it the place to experience the inside of a working storehouse.

Visiting the Tsuji Honten West Storehouse

The ground floor of the Tsuji Honten West Storehouse is SUMIYA, the brewery shop, open 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and closed on Thursdays. The upstairs restaurant opens 11:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. (last orders 2:00 p.m.), closes on Wednesdays and Thursdays, and serves dinner by advance reservation only. The café is currently closed. These details follow the official website as checked on 24 September 2026.

The website does not say whether you may look around without buying anything, so a word to the staff is a good idea, and the same goes for taking photographs inside. The exterior can be seen from the street at any time, directly facing the shop and main house. Directions and visiting conditions for the whole site are on the Tsuji Honten Sake Brewery page.