Former Miyazaki Sake Brewery Koji Storehouse

About the Former Miyazaki Sake Brewery Koji Storehouse

The Former Miyazaki Sake Brewery Koji Storehouse (旧宮崎酒造麹蔵, Kyū Miyazaki Shuzō Kōjigura) is a mid-Meiji period, 2-storey storehouse of earthen-walled construction at the back 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 is a small building, 8.2 m by 5.4 m, with a building area of 40 m².

Koji is steamed rice on which a mould, Aspergillus oryzae, has been grown. The mould turns the starch in the rice into sugar, which yeast can then ferment, so koji sits at the heart of sake brewing. As the name suggests, the storehouse is thought to have served the koji side of the brewery the Miyazaki family ran here after buying the premises in 1875. The Agency for Cultural Affairs dates it to the mid-Meiji period, the same as the sake storehouse beside it.

Why It Was Registered and How It Is Built

The Former Miyazaki Sake Brewery Koji Storehouse was registered for its contribution to the historic landscape. The Agency's description points out that, small as it is, its facade has real presence.

The koji storehouse stands with its front in line with the large sake storehouse at the north end of the plot. Its roof is the sake storehouse roof extended and carried down over it, and it takes the Okiyane form, a separate roof set over the earthen body of the storehouse. The roofline alone shows that this was built to lean on the sake storehouse rather than stand as a shed of its own.

The front is treated differently on each floor. On the ground floor hang double doors finished in Kakegonuri, with the family crest applied to their inner faces. Upstairs there are two windows, each closed by a single-leaf kakegonuri shutter. Kakegonuri is a plasterer's technique in which the edges of a door are built up in steps so that it seals tight when closed, improving the fire protection of the storehouse.

What to Look For

The best moment to see the Former Miyazaki Sake Brewery Koji Storehouse is when the ground-floor doors are open. Closed, they show only their stepped plaster edges; opened, they reveal the Miyazaki family crest on the inside of each leaf. Placing the crest on the back of the doors is a detail meant to be seen only when the storehouse is in use.

Look up at the two upstairs windows as well. Their shutters are finished in kakegonuri like the doors below, an unusually careful front for so small a building, and it is this treatment of the openings that the Agency has in mind when it praises the facade.

Step back from the Former Miyazaki Sake Brewery Koji Storehouse and you can follow the sake storehouse roof running down over it. A 277 m² building and a 40 m² one joined by a single roofline suggests the two were planned as one working unit.

Visiting the Koji Storehouse

The Former Miyazaki Sake Brewery Koji Storehouse lies behind the shop and 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 crest inside the doors is visible only when they are open, which depends on how the space is being used on the day. If you want to see it, ask the event staff. Photography rules are set by each event's organisers.