Fukuchiyo Sake Brewery Koji Room

Where the Koji Was Made

The Fukuchiyo Sake Brewery Koji Room (富久千代酒造麹室) is a single-storey building for making koji of about 1921 in Hamamachi, Kashima City, Saga Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) on November 8, 2004 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency records a single-storey timber building with a tiled roof and a building area of 154 square meters; registration number 41-0047.

The Koji Building in the Northwest Corner

The Fukuchiyo Sake Brewery Koji Room stands in the northwest corner of the site, north of the No. 1 Storehouse, running north to south along the west edge (Agency for Cultural Affairs). It is a single-storey Kirizuma-zukuri gabled building of 8 by 3 bays under Sangawara-buki tiles, with a lean-to on the east side.

Inside are two Kojimuro chambers (Agency for Cultural Affairs). This is where koji mould is grown on steamed rice; Kashima City's historic character plan explains that the mould turns the rice starch into sugar, giving the grains a faint sweetness.

Why It Was Registered

The Agency sees the Fukuchiyo Sake Brewery Koji Room as part of the brewery frontage along the street to the west, clad in the same vertical Yakisugi boards as the other buildings, and registered it for its contribution to the historic landscape.

What to Look For

Because the Fukuchiyo Sake Brewery Koji Room stands on the west boundary, its long wall faces the street on that side. Look for the way its charred-cedar boards and gabled roof carry the line south to the No. 1 Storehouse without a break.

It is narrower than the storehouse and the rice mill: a long single-storey building holding the two koji chambers, with its lean-to facing into the site on the east (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

Visiting

No information indicates that the interior of the Fukuchiyo Sake Brewery Koji Room is ever open. The Kashima City Tourism Association notes that the company offers no brewery tours, so the building is seen from the street to the west. No official guidance on photography was found.