Honke Matsuura Sake Brewery East Sake Storehouse

A Late Edo Sake Storehouse Beside the Gatehouse

Honke Matsuura Sake Brewery East Sake Storehouse (本家松浦酒造場東酒蔵, Honke Matsuura Shuzōjō Higashi Sakagura) is a late Edo-period sake storehouse in Ikenotani, Ōasa-chō, Naruto City, Tokushima Prefecture, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on August 21, 2002. It is a two-storey building in Dozo-zukuri storehouse construction with a building area of 169 square meters.

Of the three sake storehouses lined up along the Muya Kaidō road, the Honke Matsuura Sake Brewery East Sake Storehouse is the easternmost, with the nagayamon gatehouse on one side and the Middle Sake Storehouse on the other. Its registration number is 36-0034, and it was listed as a contributor to the historic landscape.

The Build of the Honke Matsuura East Sake Storehouse

The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes the East Sake Storehouse as a two-storey building with its ridge running north to south under a gabled roof of round-and-flat tiles, 8 ken long and 6 ken wide. A lean-to (Geya) is attached along the east side, and the entrance is at the south end. The north gable faces the road, so the storehouse meets the street end-on (Tsumairi).

Compare the three storehouses and the East Sake Storehouse is the shortest but the widest: the Middle runs 11 ken by 5 ken and the West 12 ken by 4 ken. That makes its gable the broadest of the three as seen from the road.

The North Gable Facing the Road

The north gable of the Honke Matsuura East Sake Storehouse is easiest to read from the bottom up. It stands on sandstone footing stones, the lower wall is clad in vertical boards with battens over the joints, and above that is a thick plastered wall of white Shikkui that hides the posts.

Small windows fitted with iron bars pierce the plaster, and narrow ledges are set into the wall to shed rainwater. Naruto City explains that the board cladding at the base protects the wall from wind and rain.

It is a plain face, white wall and a few small windows, but for anyone walking the road from the east it is the first storehouse front to appear after the gatehouse.

Visiting the Honke Matsuura East Sake Storehouse

The north gable of the East Sake Storehouse can be seen from the Muya Kaidō. Viewed together with the gatehouse next door, the contrast between the gatehouse's brick-and-plaster gable and the storehouse's white wall is clear. The east lean-to is hard to see from outside the property.

The brewery's free tours (about 45 minutes, daily between 10:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m., reservation required) include a registered former brewing storehouse, but we could not confirm whether that is the Honke Matsuura Sake Brewery East Sake Storehouse. Ask when booking whether you can go inside and whether photographs are allowed.