Tamura Sake Brewery

A Brewery Founded in 1822 beside the Tamagawa Aqueduct

Tamura Sake Brewery (田村酒造場, Tamura Shuzōjō) is a sake brewery in Fussa City, Tokyo, founded in 1822, whose Brewing Storehouse, Front Storehouse, Zogura, Former Water Mill and Side Storehouse, and Stone Wall were all registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on December 24, 2013. The brewery makes the sake sold as Kasen (嘉泉). In the national database each of the five entries carries the prefix 田村酒造 (Tamura Shuzō) rather than the company's full name.

According to the brewery, the Tamura family had lived in Fussa village for generations; its oldest papers record an ancestor named Hanjūrō (豊真) in the late 1600s. Fussa was land held directly by the shogunate, and the family served as village headmen. Brewing began with the ninth head of the line, Kanjirō (賢真), who took up sake making in 1822 at the age of 46.

The name Kasen, "auspicious spring," celebrates the moderately hard well water the family found on its own grounds. Kanjirō went on to link neighboring brewers and liquor shops into a network that grew to 24 affiliated stores across the old province of Musashi, an arrangement that ended in 1903. The family has kept output modest ever since, at around 1,500 koku a year by its own account.

Visitors should not confuse Tamura Sake Brewery with the Former Yamajū Tamura Family Residence, a separate registered property elsewhere in Fussa.

The Five Registered Structures of Tamura Sake Brewery, Oldest First

The five structures at Tamura Sake Brewery hold consecutive registration numbers 13-0308 to 13-0312, and all five were listed for contributing to the historic landscape of the country. In order of construction:

• Brewing Storehouse: around 1822, extended in 1918 and 1922. The single-storey earthen hall at the center of the works
• Front Storehouse: 1830. A former rice store and the smallest of the five
• Zogura: 1862. A two-storey storehouse set against the south side of the Front Storehouse
• Stone Wall: late Taisho period (1919 to 1926). A 145-meter wall facing the aqueduct
• Former Water Mill and Side Storehouse: early Showa period (1926 to 1945). A timber mill house and an earthen store under one roof, used for water-powered rice polishing

Taken together they span a little over a century of building on one plot. There is the great brewing hall, a storehouse that once held rice, the mill where rice was polished by water power, and the wall that squared off the property along the aqueduct, so the growth of a working brewery can be read on the ground.

Layout of the Tamura Sake Brewery Grounds

The east edge of Tamura Sake Brewery runs along the Tamagawa Aqueduct (玉川上水, Tamagawa Jōsui), the 17th-century canal that carried water to Edo. The brewery explains that the Tamura branch channel flowing through the grounds was drawn from the aqueduct and once supplied the neighborhood with household water and irrigation for fields and paddies.

Working from the Agency for Cultural Affairs descriptions, the Brewing Storehouse stands in the northwest corner, three linked sections running north from its southern end, with an octagonal brick chimney just to the south. The Front Storehouse sits in the southwest with its ridge running east to west, and the Zogura adjoins it to the south with its ridge turned north to south. The Former Water Mill and Side Storehouse is in the middle of the east side beside the channel from the aqueduct, and the Stone Wall runs along the east side and turns at a right angle (Kaneore) to follow part of the south side, with an entrance at the center of the east face.

All four buildings are built mainly as Dozo-zukuri earthen storehouses; only the water mill half of the Former Water Mill and Side Storehouse is plain timber. The Brewing Storehouse, Front Storehouse and Zogura have tiled roofs, and the mill building is roofed in sheet metal. The largest is the Brewing Storehouse at 912 square meters of building area, the smallest the Front Storehouse at 34 square meters.

Visiting Tamura Sake Brewery: The Booked Brewery Tour

The grounds and registered buildings of Tamura Sake Brewery are shown on a booked brewery tour. A specialist guide leads the walk past the cultural properties and brewing buildings for about 60 minutes, and the tour ends with a tasting flight at the SAKE-Bar of &KASEN, the brewery's new sake visitor facility. The price is from 2,700 yen per person including tax, the group limit is 10, and single travelers can book.

Tours run once a day from Tuesday to Friday, starting at 10:30 a.m., and twice on weekends and holidays, at 10:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.; allow one to one and a half hours. Reservations go through the &KASEN online booking page. On the day, check in at the &KASEN SHOP at least 10 minutes before the start and pay in advance. Alcohol is not served to minors or to anyone driving.

&KASEN, with a restaurant, bar and shop, opened in 2026 at 609 Fussa. Packages combining the tour with lunch or dinner have been paused since July 1, and guests who want both are asked to book them separately (checked September 30, 2026). The official pages do not say whether photography is allowed on the grounds, so ask the guide.

Getting to Tamura Sake Brewery

The nearest station to Tamura Sake Brewery is Fussa on the JR Ōme Line. The brewery puts the walk at about 10 minutes, and its tour page at 10 to 15 minutes. The brewery gives its address as 626 Fussa, while the national database lists 626-1 and neighboring lots in Aza-Naga, Oaza Fussa.

By car, the brewery is about 4 kilometers from Hinode Interchange on the Ken-Ō Expressway, with parking in front of the main gate. Since the tour finishes with a tasting, the train is the better choice for anyone planning to drink.