The Building Where the Rice Was Washed
Imazato Shuzo Araiba (今里酒造洗い場, also written Imazato-shuzō Arai-ba and meaning "the washing house of the Imazato Brewery") is an early Shōwa-period single-storey timber building in Shukugō, Hasami Town, Nagasaki Prefecture, registered as a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 2 March 2006.
Sake begins with water. Before rice can be steamed it has to be washed and soaked, and the timing of that soak, measured to the second in modern breweries, decides how much water the grain takes up and how the whole batch behaves afterwards. The Araiba is the building that housed this stage at Imazato Shuzo, and its name says so plainly.
It stands north of the Honkura and the Nakagura, the two oldest warehouses on the site, with its ridge running east to west across their gable ends. The Agency for Cultural Affairs records a frame eleven bays long by four bays deep, a bay or ken measuring roughly 1.8 metres, with a building area of 266 square metres. The roof is gabled and covered in sheet iron, not the ceramic tile used on the older warehouses. It is a single storey throughout.
Two projections complicate that simple box. A room extends from the west end, recorded in the register as a shikenshitsu, a testing room. And along the south face a lean-to roof, a geya, runs out to meet the north walls of the Honkura and the Nakagura, tying the new building physically into the old ones. Nothing here was designed as a free-standing object. The Araiba was fitted into a compound that had been growing since the eighteenth century.
A King Post Truss in a Sake Brewery
The most telling feature sits overhead, out of sight from the road. The roof of the Araiba is framed with a king post truss, the Western system in which a vertical post hangs from the apex and carries the tie beam below through tension, braced by diagonal struts.
Compare that with what the Edo-period warehouses beside it do. The Honkura carries doubled tie beams every two bays with sloping beams set between them; the Nakagura alternates doubled tie beams and sloping beams. Both are wagoya, the Japanese roof frame, where load travels downward through stacked timbers resting on one another. A truss works on a different principle. It resolves the load into tension and compression within a rigid triangle, so it spans further with less timber and needs no interior posts at all.
Japanese carpenters absorbed truss framing during the Meiji era, largely through government building projects and imported engineering manuals, and by the early Shōwa period it had reached provincial industrial buildings like this one. Its presence at Imazato Shuzo is a small, legible marker of when the brewery modernised, and it is why the Araiba reads as a different generation of construction from the warehouses it abuts.
A ventilator sits on the ridge, a kemudashi, the raised louvred structure used to draw off steam and smoke. Rice steaming produces a great deal of vapour, and any building handling that stage needs somewhere for it to go.
The testing room at the west end points the same direction. Analytical control of sake quality, checking acidity, sugar content and alcohol as a batch progresses, spread through the Japanese industry across the Meiji and Taishō periods. A dedicated room for it, built into the fabric of the brewery rather than improvised in a corner, indicates that Imazato Shuzo had adopted the practice by the time the Araiba went up. The record notes the room without describing its equipment, so what stood inside is not documented.
The Araiba carries registration number 42-0054 and was registered on 2 March 2006, with public notice on 23 March, in the forty-ninth round of registrations. The criterion applied is the one for buildings contributing to the historical landscape of the nation. Registration, tōroku, is a lighter category than designation, shitei: introduced in 1996, it covers buildings around fifty years old or more that shape a district's character, and it is designed so owners can keep using them. Six Imazato Shuzo buildings entered the register together that day, the Araiba among them.
Visiting Shukugō
Imazato Shuzo has made sake in Hasami since 1772, under the shop name Kamizakaya and now under the label Rokujūyoshū (六十餘洲), a phrase referring to the sixty-odd provinces of old Japan. The company still occupies the compound, which means the Araiba is a working building rather than an exhibit. There is no regular interior tour and no admission desk.
The grounds do open once a year, for the kurabiraki weekend in mid-April. In 2026 the dates were 18 and 19 April, 10:00 to 15:00 both days, admission free, with limited-release bottles, free tasting, food stalls and a free shuttle bus from JR Kawatana Station. The weekend moves within April from year to year, so confirm on the brewery's news page. Drivers are asked not to drink.
Outside the open days, the compound can be seen from the old highway through Shukugō and from the Kawatana River side. The Araiba sits behind the two big warehouses, so it is less exposed to the street than the Shingura or the shop building; the sheet-iron roof and the ridge ventilator are the things to look for. Photographing exteriors from public roads raises no issue.
Hasami Town has no railway station. JR Kawatana Station on the Ōmura Line connects by the Kawatana-Hasami town bus, running since April 2025 in place of the earlier Saihi bus service. JR Arita Station on the Sasebo Line is roughly ten minutes by taxi, with a reservation-based shared taxi between Arita and Hasami eight times daily. Highway coaches from Fukuoka, Nagasaki and Sasebo call at the Hasami-Arita interchange.
Shukugō was a post-station on the old Kami-Hasami highway, and its streetscape was recognised as a townscape asset by the town in 2004. The district burned in 1879, though the brewery escaped, which is why its Edo buildings are still standing for the Araiba to lean against. The wider town is better known for Hasami-yaki porcelain, fired here for four hundred years; Nakaoyama kiln village, the Ceramics Park and the Hasami History and Culture Exchange Hall lie a short drive away.
Enquiries: Imazato Brewery Co., Ltd., 0956-85-2002.
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Q&A
- What was Imazato Shuzo Araiba used for?
- Its name means "washing place", and it housed the rice-washing and soaking stage of brewing. A testing room projects from the west end, indicating that quality analysis was also carried out in the building. A ventilator on the ridge drew off steam.
- What is unusual about the roof structure of Imazato Shuzo Araiba?
- It uses a king post truss, a Western framing system, rather than the Japanese wagoya roof found in the adjoining Edo-period warehouses. A truss carries load through tension and compression in a rigid triangle, allowing a clear span without interior posts. Its use here reflects the spread of Western structural engineering into provincial Japanese industry by the early Shōwa period.
- Can Imazato Shuzo Araiba be visited?
- Not on a regular basis. The building belongs to an operating brewery and there is no standing interior tour. The grounds open during the annual kurabiraki weekend in mid-April. For other times, contact the brewery on 0956-85-2002.
- When was Imazato Shuzo Araiba registered, and under what category?
- It was registered as a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure) on 2 March 2006, with public notice on 23 March 2006, under registration number 42-0054. This is a distinct and lighter-touch category from Important Cultural Property or National Treasure designation.
- How does Imazato Shuzo Araiba relate to the other registered buildings on the site?
- Six buildings were registered together: the shop and residence, the Honkura, the Nakagura, the product store, the Shingura and the Araiba. The Araiba stands north of the Honkura and Nakagura and is physically joined to them by a lean-to roof along its south side. It and the Shingura are the two early Shōwa additions to the group.
Basic Information
| Name | Imazato Shuzo Araiba (今里酒造洗い場) |
|---|---|
| Location | 596 Shukugō, Hasami Town, Higashisonogi District, Nagasaki Prefecture |
| Designation | National Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure); registration no. 42-0054; criterion: contributes to the historical landscape of the nation |
| Year Designated | Registered 2 March 2006; notified 23 March 2006 (49th registration round) |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Timber frame, single storey, sheet-iron roof; building area 266 m²; eleven bays by four bays |
| Owner | Not recorded in the Agency for Cultural Affairs database; the building stands within the Imazato Brewery Co., Ltd. works |
| Public Access | Visible from surrounding roads; grounds open during the annual kurabiraki in mid-April; no regular interior tours |
References
- National Cultural Properties Database, Agency for Cultural Affairs — Imazato Shuzo Araiba
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00005386
- Nagasaki Prefecture Cultural Properties Database — Imazato Shuzo
- https://www.pref.nagasaki.jp/bunkadb/index.php/view/419
- Hasami Town — National Registered Tangible Cultural Properties
- https://www.town.hasami.lg.jp/kiji0031441/index.html
- Imazato Brewery Co., Ltd. — Brewery News
- https://rokujuyoshu.com/notice/
- Hasami Town — Transport Access
- https://www.town.hasami.lg.jp/kiji0032011/index.html
Last verified: 2026.08.20