Nakashima Sake Brewery West Storehouse

The Storehouse That Faces the River

Nakashima Sake Brewery West Storehouse (中島酒造場西蔵, Nakashima Shuzōjō Nishigura) is a late-Meiji sake storehouse at a brewery in Hamamachi, Kashima City, Saga Prefecture, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 3 August 2006. It is a 2-storey Dozo-zukuri building of 169 square metres, standing south of the Main House and beside the Brewing Storehouse on its west.

Of the five registered Nakashima buildings, only the West Storehouse is dated by the Agency for Cultural Affairs to the late Meiji era, which makes it the youngest of the group. Its job was to hold sake once it had been pressed from the mash.

How It Is Built, and Why It Was Registered

The Agency records the Nakashima Sake Brewery West Storehouse as a north-south block of 6 by 6 bays, a square plan, under a gabled roof of sangawara pantiles. The outer walls are white Shikkui plaster. On the west wall the lower section is faced with brick, and part of that is covered in sheet iron.

The roof is carried on a Wagoya frame of the post-on-beam type: short vertical struts stand on the tie beams and hold up the purlins. It is the native Japanese way of framing a roof, with no Western-style truss.

Registration came under the criterion for contribution to the historic landscape, and the Agency's description is specific about which landscape: it counts this storehouse as one element of the view from the Hama River. The Main House gives the brewery its face to the road; the West Storehouse gives it a face to the water.

What to Look For

The west wall is where the Nakashima Sake Brewery West Storehouse is most interesting. White plaster gives way to brick at the base, and part of the brick is sheathed in iron sheet, so three materials are stacked on a single face.

The ridge runs north to south, so the gables look north and south. With a 2-storey height set on a square 6 by 6 bay plan, it makes a compact, square mass beside the long, narrow Brewing Storehouse.

Visiting the West Storehouse

The Nakashima Sake Brewery West Storehouse stands inside the property, west of the Brewing Storehouse, and its interior is not open. There is no announcement of tours from the shop into the storehouses, so it can be seen only where visible from outside the property. As the Agency's own description suggests, the view that counts is the one from the river side.

No posted rule on photography was found. Stay on public ground and do not enter the yard. Opening hours and directions for the whole brewery are gathered on the Nakashima Sake Brewery page.