A Brick Flue on the Skyline of Ikeda
The Nakawa Shoten Chimney (中和商店煙突, also written Nakawa-shōten Entotsu) is a brick chimney 9.4 metres tall in the Sarada district of Ikedachō, Miyoshi City, Tokushima Prefecture, built around 1926 and entered on the national register of Tangible Cultural Properties on 5 December 2019.
It rises from the eastern flank of the brewery's main production hall, in a working sake compound owned by Nakawa Shoten, a firm that has traded in Ikeda since 1802. The chimney has one job. Steam from the kamaba, the room where rice is steamed for fermentation, escapes through it. That is the whole of its function, and the reason it was built no taller than it needed to be.
Ikeda sits in a basin ringed by mountains at the centre of Shikoku, on the upper Yoshino River. Winters here turn genuinely cold, which suits brewing, and the town once held so many breweries that people called it the Nada of Shikoku, after the famous sake district in Hyōgo. Most of those firms are gone. Three remain in Miyoshi City, and the brick stack above Nakawa Shoten is the clearest survivor of what the industry looked like when the count ran into the dozens.
Why a Chimney Became a Cultural Property
Japan's registration system, introduced in 1996, protects buildings and structures roughly fifty years old or more through a lighter touch than the designation system used for National Treasures. Owners keep using their property; the state records it and requires notice before major alteration. The Nakawa Shoten Chimney was registered under the criterion of contributing to the historic landscape of the country, with the registration number 36-0205.
The Agency for Cultural Affairs classes it as an other structure rather than a building, one of five items registered together at this address on the same day. The office, the brewing hall, the mixing storehouse and the brewers' lodging make up the other four.
What earns the chimney its place is partly the brickwork. It is laid in English bond, the pattern in which courses of headers alternate with courses of stretchers, a technique that arrived in Japan with Western engineering in the nineteenth century and had become standard for industrial masonry by the Taishō era. The shaft measures 1.3 metres square at the base and narrows steadily as it rises. Around the upper section, a frame of angle steel and round bar grips the masonry, an added reinforcement of the kind that many Japanese brick chimneys received after earthquake damage elsewhere made owners cautious.
Brick chimneys of this scale were once ordinary across rural Japan, attached to bathhouses, soy sauce works, silk mills and breweries. Very few survive. Steel replaced them, then demolition removed most of what remained, because an unused brick stack is a liability rather than an asset. This one still works.
Seeing It, and What Surrounds It
The chimney is visible from the street. You do not need permission, an appointment or a ticket to look at it, which sets it apart from most of the registered properties in this compound. Walk east from JR Awa-Ikeda Station for about 500 metres, roughly seven minutes, and it appears above the tiled roofs.
Look at the taper. The narrowing is not a smooth cone but a series of subtle steps built into the coursing, and the joint lines make the geometry legible from the ground. Note also how low it is. At 9.4 metres this is a modest stack by industrial standards, sized for a wooden brewery on a compact town lot rather than a factory.
The brewery interior is not open on ordinary days. Nakawa Shoten is a working producer, its brand Imakomachi made between late November and March, and casual entry into the fermentation rooms is not possible; enquire in advance if you hope to see inside. One day each year is different. At the Shikoku Sake Festival, held in February, Nakawa Shoten opens its brewery along with two neighbouring producers, Miyoshikiku and Hōsui, from 11:00 to 15:00. The 28th festival is scheduled for 20 February 2027, with the tasting hall at the Ikeda Municipal Gymnasium and brewery openings at each producer's own site.
Photography from the public road is unrestricted. Inside the gate, ask first. If you have time afterwards, the Awa-Ikeda Tobacco Museum and Udatsu House, about fifteen minutes on foot, explains the trade this company practised before it made sake, and makes better sense of why a brewery here carries the name of a merchant house.
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Q&A
- How tall is the Nakawa Shoten Chimney, and what is it made of?
- It stands 9.4 metres tall and is built of brick laid in English bond, measuring 1.3 metres square at the base and tapering toward the top. A frame of angle steel and round bar reinforces the structure.
- Can visitors see the Nakawa Shoten Chimney without an appointment?
- Yes. The chimney is visible from the public street beside the brewery and can be viewed and photographed at any time. The brewery buildings themselves are not open to casual visitors.
- When can the inside of the Nakawa Shoten brewery be visited?
- The compound opens to the public during the Shikoku Sake Festival each February, from 11:00 to 15:00. The 28th festival falls on 20 February 2027. At other times, contact the brewery in advance, as it is an operating facility.
- When was the Nakawa Shoten Chimney registered as a cultural property?
- It was registered on 5 December 2019 as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property, number 36-0205, under the criterion of contributing to the historic landscape of Japan. Four other structures on the same site were registered at the same time.
- How do I reach the Nakawa Shoten Chimney from JR Awa-Ikeda Station?
- Walk east for roughly 500 metres, about seven minutes. Awa-Ikeda is reached by limited express in about an hour from Takamatsu, Tokushima or Kōchi, and by highway bus from Kobe and Osaka.
Basic Information
| Name | Nakawa Shoten Chimney (中和商店煙突) |
|---|---|
| Location | 1755 Sarada, Ikedachō, Miyoshi City, Tokushima Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structure), No. 36-0205 |
| Year Designated | 5 December 2019 |
| Quantity | 1 structure |
| Dimensions | Brick construction, height 9.4 m; base 1.3 m square |
| Owner | Nakawa Shoten G.K. |
| Public Access | Visible from the street at all times. Brewery interior open during the Shikoku Sake Festival in February; otherwise by prior arrangement. |
References
- National Cultural Properties Database, Agency for Cultural Affairs: Nakawa Shoten Chimney
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00013197
- Nakawa Shoten G.K. official site: About the Brewery
- https://www.imakomachi.com/warehouse.php
- Agency for Cultural Affairs: Report on Registered Tangible Cultural Properties (Buildings), 19 July 2019
- https://www.bunka.go.jp/seisaku/bunkazai/shokai/yukei_kenzobutsu/pdf/91972801_01.pdf
- Shikoku Sake Festival: Event Outline
- https://www.shikoku-sakematuri.com/event/
Last verified: 2026.08.02