Honke Matsuura Sake Brewery West Sake Storehouse

An Early Meiji Sake Storehouse at the West End of the Row

Honke Matsuura Sake Brewery West Sake Storehouse (本家松浦酒造場西酒蔵, Honke Matsuura Shuzōjō Nishi Sakagura) is an early Meiji-era sake storehouse in Ikenotani, Ōasa-chō, Naruto City, Tokushima Prefecture, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on August 21, 2002. A two-storey building in Dozo-zukuri storehouse construction, it has a building area of 248 square meters, the largest of the brewery's five registered buildings.

It stands at the west end of the three storehouses on the Muya Kaidō road, with the Middle Sake Storehouse to its east. The East and Middle storehouses are late Edo, but the Agency for Cultural Affairs dates the Honke Matsuura Sake Brewery West Sake Storehouse to the early Meiji era, making it the youngest of the three. Its registration number is 36-0036, and it was listed as a contributor to the historic landscape.

The Long, Narrow Plan of the Honke Matsuura West Sake Storehouse

The agency describes the West Sake Storehouse as a two-storey building with its ridge running north to south under a gabled roof of round-and-flat tiles, 12 ken long and 4 ken wide. Of the three, it is the deepest and the narrowest.

A lean-to (Geya) along its east side links it to the Middle Sake Storehouse. The plan joins an early Meiji storehouse to a late Edo one, so buildings of different dates read as a single working sequence.

Set Back from the Road, and the "Nada of Awa"

Unlike the East and Middle storehouses, the Honke Matsuura Sake Brewery West Sake Storehouse sits a little back from the Muya Kaidō. That is why the westernmost of the three white gables appears slightly recessed from the street.

The agency writes that the West Sake Storehouse, together with the East and Middle, creates the brewery landscape of Naruto once called the "Nada of Awa." Nada, near Kobe, is Japan's best-known sake district, and Naruto's row of breweries was nicknamed after it.

Naruto City likewise praises the three gables, finished in white Shikkui above board-clad lower walls, for the continuous face they present to the road.

Visiting the Honke Matsuura West Sake Storehouse

The north gable of the West Sake Storehouse can be seen from the Muya Kaidō. Because it is set back, looking at it alongside the Middle Sake Storehouse's gable shows the difference in depth. The east lean-to is inside the property and hard to make out from the street.

The brewery's free tours (about 45 minutes, by reservation) include a registered former brewing storehouse, but we could not confirm whether the Honke Matsuura Sake Brewery West Sake Storehouse is among them. Ask when booking about going inside and about photography.