Saijo Brewery Street Details

 

The wabi sabi of aging metal signs, with their multiple layers partially revealed by the passage of time, is a favoroute photo subject of mine....

In this series I will look at some of the details found while exploring the Sake Brewery Street in Saijo. I refer you to the earlier post for details about the area.

A sugidama hanging outside one brewery. In November, when I was there, all the sugidama were brown after having hung since the spring.

Kazaridaru are the decorative sake barrels that are donated as offerings to shrines. Of course they also serve as advertising. Some can be seen at the local shrine which I visited a little earlier.

Most of the breweries have rooms for groups to listen to talks, see demonstrations, or watch videos...

And of course, plenty of opportunities to taste.....

Nowadays most sake seems to be brewed in large, metal barrels, but plenty of traditional wooden ones can be seen...

Red brick chimney plus sugidama. Unusually, a Shachi ornaments the roof.

Most of the breweries have displays of historic materials....

The spring water used in sake production is highly valued.

Often a small shrine will be found associated with them.

The previous post was on the architecture and history of the Saijo Sake Brewery Street.

Saijo Sake Brewery Street

 

Saijo, in the mountains of Hiroshima, is one of the three great sake-brewing centres in Japan. Fushimi in Kyoto, and Nada in Hyogo being the other two.

Of course, sake is brewed just about everywhere in Japan and while the number of small, family-run sake breweries is somewhat declining, you dont have to look far to find one.

What Saijo represents is large-scale sake brewing, and it is home to seven such breweries, all located close together in what is now named Sakagura-dori, Sake Brewery Street.

All the breweries have sections open to the public for sales, tasting, and various levels of tours.

The town hosts an incredibly popular sake festival in October when around 200,000 vistors descend on the town.

The oldest exisiting sake brewery dates back around 350 years.

Saijo lies on the main, ancient highway, the Sanyo-do, and the feudal lords would be provided accomodations in honjin when they travelled the road.

The owner of a honjin started brewing sake for the guests, and this is now the Hakubotan Sake Brewery.

Nestled in a mountain basin, the climate of the area, cold and dry in the winter, is perfect for sake brewing.

The area also has an abundant supply of good spring water, another major ingredient.

However, Saijo did not become a major sake brewing centre until the modern period.

Saijo lacked the rivers that could power waterwheels, the premodern power for industrial scale polishing of the rice for sake brewing.

In 1896 a local man who was  a sake brewer and an engineer, invented a mechanical rice-polisher that revolutioned the large-scale production of sake.

Most, but not all, of the breweries in Saijo were founded after that.

The architecture of Sake Brewery Street is quite distinctive with white plastered walls and the red rooftiles of this part of Japan.

Red brick chimneys are another indicator.

Many of the walls are known as Namako style, referring to the diagonal white plaster grid on a dark, tile background.

This design is fairly common on storehouse walls. Namako is the sea cucumber and the raised, rounded, white plaster is said to resemble it.

There are free guided tours of the area, or you can pick up a map from the nearby tourist information office and wander by yourself.

The previous post in this series on my visit to Saijo while walking along the Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage was on the delightful zen garden at Entsuji Temple.

Hizen Hamashuku Sakagura Street Preservation District

 

Along the banks of the Hama River in the southern part of what is now Kashima City in Saga Prefecture in Kyushu, Hizen Hamashuku was a town that grew up along the Tara Kaido, a branch of the Nagasaki Kaido.

The area around a 600-meter-long section of the old road is named Sakagura Street and is now a registered preservation district of traditional architecture.

Among the traditional stores and homes are three surviving sake breweries from among the thirteen that originally dominated the area.

Touring the traditional sake breweries and sampling the many varieties still produced here is now the many attraction that draws tourists from far and wide.

In combination with 3 other sake breweries in Kashima, including one near the famous Yutoku Inari Shrine, major sake festivals are held in the Spring and Autumn.

I am not a big fan of sake, so for me the area was of more interest because of the traditional architecture.

Other than the sake breweries there are souvenir shops, cafes, and eateries,

Sakagura Street is just a few minutes walk from Hizenham JR Station.

Just off the main street is an old, thatched, former samurai residence that I will cover next post.

The previous post in this series chronicling day 59 of my Kyushu walk was the nearby Yutoku Inari Shrine.

Fujii Shuzo Sake Brewery Takehara

Fujii Shuzo Sake Brewery Takehara

At the northern end of the historic district of Takehara in Hiroshima is the former sake brewery of Fujii Shuzo.

Founded in 1863, the company is still making sake but at a different location.

The former brewery buildings are now a tourist attraction with some historic exhibits connected to sake making and a shop selling local crafts and souvenirs.

It is possible to taste the different sakes and buy them. There is also a soba noodle restaurant within the premises.