Koeigiku Sake Brewery Motokura

The house where the yeast starter was made

The Koeigiku Sake Brewery Motokura (光栄菊酒造モトクラ, Kōeigiku Shuzō Motokura) is a brewery building in Oshima, Mikazuki-cho, Ogi City, Saga Prefecture, built in 1930 and entered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 26 February 2021.

The single-storey timber building joins the north end of the east wall of the Main Storehouse at Koeigiku Sake Brewery and covers 113 square metres. Its pantiled roof ends in a half-hipped gable to the north and a plain gable to the south, so the two ends are shaped differently. It is the northernmost of three buildings, the Motokura, the Muromae and the Former Koji Room, that run in a line along the east side of the Main Storehouse.

The name is registered in katakana. In sake brewing, the starter in which yeast is built up from koji, steamed rice and water is called shubo, or moto. Motokura appears to be the brewers' own name for the storehouse where the moto was made, and that working name has become the official title.

Rows of floor-level windows and a surviving floor frame

From the ground up: the building sits on a continuous granite footing, with a timber sill laid on top and the posts rising from it. The walls are clad in vertical boarding.

The openings are what set it apart. The north and east walls have a floor-level window in every bay, and high on the north wall is a further opening sheltered by a drip hood. The windows are concentrated on the sunless north and east sides. Yeast starters are usually kept cool, so the arrangement reads as a way of admitting cool air and ventilation, though no record of their intended use has been found.

Inside, the framing of a former upper floor survives, and the roof is carried on a traditional Wagoya frame with double tie beams. The building is registered as single-storey, but its skeleton shows that an upper floor was once laid. The Agency for Cultural Affairs notes that the Koeigiku Sake Brewery Motokura shapes the view at the north-east corner of the site. It is registration number 41-116, listed under the criterion of contributing to the historic landscape of the nation.

The brewery stood idle after it closed in 2006, and brewing resumed in 2019. That a starter house from the early Showa years came through that gap intact is part of its interest.

What to look for: the north-east corner

The corner to study on the Koeigiku Sake Brewery Motokura is the north-east one. Floor-level windows at a steady interval run along both the north and east walls, and on the north side the hooded upper opening sits above the row. Against the vertical boarding the openings keep a clear rhythm, easiest to appreciate from the corner.

Look at the roof ends as well. The north gable is clipped at the apex into a half-hip, while the south end, where the Muromae adjoins it, is a straight gable. From the north it is the half-hipped end that shows, backed by the great roof of the Main Storehouse.

Visiting

The Koeigiku Sake Brewery Motokura is not open to the public. It is part of a working brewery, and as of 25 September 2026 no public visits were advertised, so the floor framing and roof structure inside cannot be seen.

The exterior can be viewed from outside the site. The fields to the east are private, so do not walk onto them. The brewery has published no photography policy; take pictures from the road without getting in the way of work.