Yano Sake Brewery West Storehouse

A 1921 Storehouse on the Western Edge

The Yano Sake Brewery West Storehouse (矢野酒造西蔵, Yano Shuzō Nishigura) is a two-storey earthen storehouse of 1921 at Yano Sake Brewery in Takatsuhara, Kashima City, Saga Prefecture, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on August 3, 2006.

It stands at the west edge of the plot beside the middle storehouse, with its ridge running north to south and a building area of 204 square meters. The Agency for Cultural Affairs calls the Yano Sake Brewery West Storehouse the main element of the view of the brewery from the west.

Iron Cladding and a Shared Wall

The main block measures 9 Ken by 3 ken, about 16.4 by 5.5 meters if one ken is 1.82 meters, under a gabled pantiled roof (Kirizuma-zukuri, Sangawara-buki).

Its outer walls are clad in iron sheet, quite unlike the white plaster of the east and middle storehouses. The side facing out of the property is wrapped in a skin that shrugs off wind and rain.

The east wall of the Yano Sake Brewery West Storehouse has been removed, so it shares a single wall with the middle storehouse. The two buildings meet wall to wall and can work almost as one interior. The description does not say when the wall came out.

A Store Wing with Brewers' Quarters Above

A storage wing 5 ken long adjoins the Yano Sake Brewery West Storehouse on its south side, and its upper floor was once the brewers' dormitory.

Kurabito, the brewery workers who serve under the master brewer, often lived on site through the winter brewing season. Sleeping quarters directly above the work reflect a trade in which fermentation had to be watched day and night.

Further south still is the brick koji room, so the western edge of the plot is lined with buildings that each handled a stage of sake making.

The View from the West

The Yano Sake Brewery West Storehouse is registration number 41-0058, listed for contributing to the historic landscape of the nation.

The Saga Prefectural Heritage Database likewise singles out the row of storehouses seen from the west, beginning with this building and the koji room. If the main house and former rice mill are the brewery's face on the old road, the west storehouse is its face at the back.

Seeing the West Storehouse

The west side of the Yano Sake Brewery West Storehouse faces out of the property, but no route to that side is published. Stay on public roads and do not enter private land.

The brewery directs visitors to Tatsumi no Kura in the former rice mill, and no public access to this storehouse is announced. Ask when booking a brewery tour whether it can be entered.