Koeigiku Sake Brewery Washing Room and Kettle Room

Where the rice was washed and steamed

The Koeigiku Sake Brewery Washing Room and Kettle Room (光栄菊酒造洗い場及び釜場, Kōeigiku Shuzō Araiba oyobi Kamaba) is a single-storey brewery workshop in Oshima, Mikazuki-cho, Ogi City, Saga Prefecture, built in the early Showa period (1926–1945) and entered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 26 February 2021.

It adjoins the north end of the Street-Front Storehouse, the core of Koeigiku Sake Brewery, but sits at a slight angle to it. Two long gabled ranges under pantiled roofs, the washing room and the kettle room, stand side by side, and a valley gutter runs north to south between them to carry off the rain from both roofs. The building area is 171 square metres.

Why the Koeigiku Sake Brewery Washing Room and Kettle Room is turned slightly off the line of the storehouse is not explained in the Agency for Cultural Affairs record. It may follow the old road or the watercourse along the north edge of the site, or it may reflect a different building date; nothing on file settles the question. Either way, the skewed angle is what distinguishes its plan.

A workshop for water and fire

Sake brewing begins with washing polished rice, soaking it and steaming it. This building handled that first stage, and at Koeigiku the washing room and the kettle room share a single valley gutter, keeping the distance wet rice had to travel very short.

The Agency's description picks out two features. The west wall has an unusually large number of openings, and the roof over the washing room carries skylights, both presumably to bring light and air into a room that used water in quantity.

The second is the great cauldron in the kettle room. It is set into a pit dug in the earthen floor and connected to the chimney outside. Sinking the cauldron below floor level would lower the working height of the steaming tub placed on top, making it easier to load and unload the rice.

The chimney that drew smoke from the cauldron fire is registered separately as the Koeigiku Sake Brewery Chimney, number 41-119. The Koeigiku Sake Brewery Washing Room and Kettle Room itself is number 41-115, registered under the criterion of contributing to the historic landscape of the nation. That the cauldron and its chimney survive as one working system is the point of listing them side by side.

What to look for: skylights and twin gables

From outside, the Koeigiku Sake Brewery Washing Room and Kettle Room is recognisable by its two gabled roofs of equal height with a gutter running along the valley between them. Skylights are cut into the roof slope on the washing side, dropping light into a workshop with no upper floor.

The chimney is the easiest guide. The kettle room lies just west of it, so following the red-brick shaft down leads the eye to a low single-storey roof. Seen from the old road, the tall roof of the Street-Front Storehouse rises behind, which makes the workshop look lower still.

The sunken cauldron cannot be seen from outside. Its setting is described and photographed in the Agency for Cultural Affairs database.

Visiting

The Koeigiku Sake Brewery Washing Room and Kettle Room is not open to the public. It is part of a working brewery, and as of 25 September 2026 no public visits were advertised.

The exterior can be seen from the old road on the north side of the site. Do not enter the premises or the surrounding fields. The brewery has published no photography policy; photograph from the road and keep clear of traffic and brewery vehicles.