Former Miyazaki Sake Brewery Clothing Storehouse

About the Former Miyazaki Sake Brewery Clothing Storehouse

The Former Miyazaki Sake Brewery Clothing Storehouse (旧宮崎酒造衣装蔵, Kyū Miyazaki Shuzō Ishōgura) is a Meiji period, 3-storey storehouse of earthen-walled construction facing the inner courtyard of the Former Miyazaki Sake Brewery in Sewamachi, Namerikawa City, Toyama Prefecture, and was entered on Japan's register of Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on April 28, 2010. It measures 9.6 m by 5.9 m, with a building area of 49 m², and is the only one of the brewery's four registered buildings to rise to 3 storeys.

An ishōgura, or clothing storehouse, is where a merchant or landed family kept kimono, furnishings and other household valuables. The Former Miyazaki Sake Brewery Clothing Storehouse is likely to have belonged to the domestic side of the Miyazaki household rather than to the brewing done in the sake and koji storehouses. The Agency for Cultural Affairs dates it to the Meiji period, so it went up after the family bought the premises in 1875.

Why It Was Registered and How It Is Built

The Former Miyazaki Sake Brewery Clothing Storehouse was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape. The Agency's description notes that, together with the sake storehouse and the others, it gives the site its weighty character.

It stands across the courtyard to the north of the shop and main house and to the east of the sake storehouse. The gabled roof of pan tiles runs east to west, and a deep eave projects over the front to shelter the Tomae, the storehouse entrance. At 3 storeys it is noticeably taller than anything else on the site and forms a second high point behind the main house.

The double doors of the entrance are finished in Kakegonuri, the stepped plasterwork that seals a storehouse door tight, and carry a family crest worked by a plasterer with a trowel. Above the opening runs a lintel shaped like a torii gate.

What to Look For

The first thing to find on the Former Miyazaki Sake Brewery Clothing Storehouse is the family crest on the doors. It is not painted but shaped in plaster with a trowel. The doors of the koji storehouse nearby also carry the Miyazaki crest, so the same emblem appears on two separate storehouses.

Then look at the torii-shaped lintel over the doorway. Laid across the top of the opening, it keeps a clear outline even in the shadow of the deep eave. Stepped door edges, a trowelled crest and a shaped lintel: most of the craftsmanship of this building is gathered around its entrance.

Stand back on the courtyard side to take in the height of the Former Miyazaki Sake Brewery Clothing Storehouse. Rising a full storey above the 2-storey sake and koji storehouses, it stands up between the house and the brewing buildings.

Visiting the Clothing Storehouse

The Former Miyazaki Sake Brewery Clothing Storehouse faces the courtyard behind the main house, so it is hard to see from the old Hokuriku Kaidō highway. The property is privately owned and not open on a regular basis, and the storehouse can be seen up close only on days when the grounds are opened for events such as the Namerikawa Lantern Festival (checked October 2026).

The sources do not say which face of the doors carries the crest, so whether you can see it may depend on whether the doors are open. No information on opening the interior to visitors could be found. Photography rules are set by each event's organisers.