Yamano Family Residence Sake Brewery 4

About the Yamano Family Residence Sake Brewery 4

The Yamano Family Residence Sake Brewery 4 (山野家住宅酒蔵四, Yamano-ke Jūtaku Sakagura Yon) is an early Showa-era brewery building in a sake-making family's compound in Kisabe, Katano City, Osaka Prefecture, built for making koji and listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2003.

It stands tight against the south side of Sake Brewery 1 in the northwest corner of the compound. It is a 2-storey Dozo-zukuri storehouse under a gabled (Kirizuma-zukuri) pantile roof, with a building area of 128 square metres and a long, narrow plan: its length (Ketayuki) is much greater than its depth (Harima).

Koji is steamed rice on which a mould has been grown; the mould's enzymes turn the rice starch into sugar, which is what lets sake ferment. The Yamano Family Residence Sake Brewery 4 was built specifically for that step.

Why It Was Registered

The building was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape. The Agency for Cultural Affairs notes that apart from a doorway and a small window in the east gable it has no openings at all, and that the interior is lined with boards throughout. Together with Sake Brewery 1 and the domestic storehouse to the south, it forms the northwest quarter of the compound.

That closed-up design makes sense once you know what koji needs. The mould grows only if temperature and humidity are held steady, so outside air has to be kept out as far as possible. Thick clay walls, almost no openings and a full timber lining all point to a room built for control.

The Yamano Family Residence Sake Brewery 4 also shows that the family gave individual brewing stages their own buildings. Adding a purpose-built koji house in the early Showa years, alongside the Meiji-era Sake Brewery 1, hints at how the business and its methods were changing.

What to Look For

The clue from outside is what is missing. The only door and window are in the east gable, so every other wall is blank, and it is a blank side that faces the world beyond the compound.

Notice the proportions as well. Because the building is long and narrow, its ridge runs a good distance while its gable is smaller than that of Sake Brewery 1 next door. In the row of large and small gables above the earthen wall, the Yamano Family Residence Sake Brewery 4 is the one in the middle.

The board lining cannot be seen from the street, but it is worth picturing the carefully conditioned room behind that windowless wall.

Visiting

This building belongs to a working brewery and its interior is not open to the public. Only the outer walls and gable, seen over the earthen wall from the street on the northwest side of the compound, are visible.

Take photographs from the public road, do not enter the grounds, and avoid lingering where you might get in the way of the brewery's work.