Honke Matsuura Sake Brewery

A Sake House on the Old Muya Road, Brewing Since 1804

Honke Matsuura Sake Brewery (本家松浦酒造場, Honke Matsuura Shuzōjō) is a sake-brewing house founded in 1804 in Ikenotani, Ōasa-chō, Naruto City, Tokushima Prefecture, and five of its buildings, the nagayamon gatehouse, the East, Middle and West sake storehouses and the rice polishing storehouse, were listed together as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on August 21, 2002. The brewery is best known for its sake label Narutotai (鳴門鯛, "Naruto sea bream").

Naruto City's description says the Matsuura family, who traded under the house name Kamiya (紙屋), made their fortune in the Edo period dealing in indigo and running coastal cargo ships. According to the brewery's own chronology, the second head of the family, Matsuura Naozō Yoshiyuki, took up sake brewing in 1804, and the Narutotai trademark was approved in 1886. The brewery says the name came from the prefectural governor of the day, Sakai Akira, and the fifth head, Matsuura Kyūhei: sea bream from the Naruto Strait fight the fierce tidal currents and grow firm and rich, and the sake was meant to be just as refined.

Brewing continues on the site today. In a 2023 export case study, the Chugoku Shikoku Regional Agricultural Administration Office described Honke Matsuura Sake Brewery as the only sake brewery left in Naruto City.

How the Five Buildings of Honke Matsuura Sake Brewery Line the Road

The buildings of Honke Matsuura Sake Brewery stand along the Muya Kaidō (撫養街道), an old highway. Walking it from the east with the Agency for Cultural Affairs notes in hand, the order is easy to follow.

The nagayamon gatehouse comes first, facing north onto the road. Directly west of it is the East Sake Storehouse, then the Middle and the West sake storehouses. All three run north to south under gabled roofs and are entered from the gable end (Tsumairi), so each presents a white gable wall to the street. The West Sake Storehouse alone is set a little back from the road.

The rice polishing storehouse is across the road, on a separate lot north of the three storehouses. Even its address is different: lot 10 in the Ōishi section rather than lot 19 in Yanaginomoto. With the gate and storehouses on the south side and the polishing house on the north, the working brewery straddles the highway.

Registration Details of Honke Matsuura Sake Brewery

The five buildings of Honke Matsuura Sake Brewery were registered in the 34th round of listings and announced in the official gazette on September 3, 2002. Their registration numbers run in sequence: 36-0033 for the nagayamon gate, 36-0034 for the East Sake Storehouse, 36-0035 for the Middle, 36-0036 for the West and 36-0037 for the rice polishing storehouse. All five were registered as contributors to the historic landscape.

The agency dates the gatehouse and the East and Middle storehouses to the late Edo period, with the gatehouse altered in the late Meiji era. The West Sake Storehouse is early Meiji and the rice polishing storehouse late Meiji. Naruto City puts the polishing house at around 1907 and the other four in the latter part of the late Edo period.

What earned the listing is the streetscape. The agency writes that the three storehouses together make up the brewery landscape of Naruto, once nicknamed the "Nada of Awa" after the famous sake district near Kobe. The city singles out the run of three white plastered gable triangles above board-clad lower walls as a lively rhythm along the road.

Visiting Honke Matsuura Sake Brewery and Getting There

Honke Matsuura Sake Brewery offers guided brewery tours by advance reservation. According to the brewery, tours are free, last about 45 minutes and run every day between 10:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m., covering the brewing process and the buildings, including the registered former brewing storehouse and the family's main house. Book through the web form or by phone at least one week ahead. Tours are given in Japanese only.

The brewery shop, Narutotai no Mise, occupies a converted corner of the premises and opens from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., including weekends and holidays. It closes January 1 to 3 and on statutory inspection days. Tastings are offered, but not to drivers or anyone under 20.

The gatehouse, the three gable walls and the rice polishing storehouse across the road can all be seen from the Muya Kaidō. Without a tour booking, the storehouse interiors and the back of the property are off limits, so visitors either look from the street or stop at the shop.

Awa-Ōtani Station on the JR Naruto Line is about 8 minutes away on foot, and Ikenotani Station on the JR Kōtoku Line about 15 minutes. By car, the brewery is about 10 minutes from the Naruto Interchange.