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KITAKATA |
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KITAKATA has always been an important commercial centre, producing
sake, miso paste, rice and charcoal. At some point, a craze for building
kura swept through the town until almost everyone had one of these
fireproof storehouses encased in thick mud walls. Later, they started
building brick versions, and today even the post office and other public
offices hide behind kura facades. It's best to concentrate on the
central district where you can visit a sake brewery and take in several
kura on route, but there's no need to devote more than a couple of hours
to Kitakata, since the storehouses are now swamped by an otherwise
uninteresting sprawling town.
Trains from Aizu-Wakamatsu (on the JR Ban-etsu line) arrive on the south
side of Kitakata, from where it's a twenty-minute walk to the central
shopping street, Choudori , where you'll see your first kura . Two
blocks beyond the Sasaya Ryokan , a left turn leads to the Yamatogawa
Sake Brewing Museum (daily 9am-4.30pm; free). The museum occupies an
attractive collection of seven kura , where sake was made from 1790 to
1990, before production moved to a new automated plant. You'll be given
a guided tour - a brief English pamphlet should be available - and the
opportunity to taste a few samples, though there's no obligation to buy.
As you go round, note the globe of cedar fronds hanging in the entrance
hall. Traditionally, breweries hang a green cedar ball outside in March,
when the freshly brewed sake is put in vats to age; by September the
browned fronds indicate that it's ready to drink.
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