Ushiku Chateau

Published: Aug 11, 2026

Updated: Aug 11, 2026

Ushiku ChateauKamiya DenbeiMeiji brickwineryImportant Cultural Property

Representative image — not a photograph of this location.

Kamiya Denbei made his money on Denki Bran, the brandy-based liqueur still served at his bar in Asakusa, and in 1903 he spent it on this: a French-style brick winery on the Ibaraki plain, the first place in Japan to grow grapes, ferment, age and bottle wine on one site in the European manner. The office, the fermentation hall and the cellar are nationally designated Important Cultural Properties, valued both as Meiji-period brick architecture and as industrial history.

The brickwork is the reason to come — heavy, arched, and unmistakably an attempt to build France in Japan by someone who had seen photographs. The Kamiya Denbei memorial museum inside the cellar building is free, there is a shop and a restaurant, and the grounds are open to walk. It is eight minutes on foot from a station on the Joban Line, which makes it one of the easiest heritage buildings in the region to reach and one of the least visited.

Essential Information

Opening Hours

Grounds open during daylight hours | Memorial museum 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM | Shop 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM | Restaurant lunch 11:30 AM – 3:00 PM, dinner 5:30 PM – 9:00 PM

Closed: Museum closed over the New Year and for occasional maintenance | Shop closed Mondays

Entrance Fee

Free | Museum free | Wine, food and tours priced separately

Best Season

Year-round | Autumn for the grape harvest season

Visit Duration

60–90 minutes | 2 hours with a meal

Getting There

Access Information

3-20-1 Chuo, Ushiku. About 8 minutes on foot from the east exit of JR Ushiku Station on the Joban Line. Grounds free to enter. The Kamiya Denbei Memorial Museum is free, open 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM, closed only over the New Year and for occasional maintenance. The shop opens 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM and is closed Mondays; the restaurant serves lunch 11:30 AM – 3:00 PM (last order 2:00 PM) and dinner 5:30 PM – 9:00 PM (last order 8:00 PM).

Insider Guide

Premium

**The museum is free and inside the listed cellar.** That is the best value here — you get the interior of a designated Important Cultural Property at no charge. It closes at 4:00 PM, two hours before the shop. **Mondays close the shop but not the site.** The grounds and museum keep going; only retail shuts. Worth knowing if buying wine is the point of the trip. **Walk the outside first.** The brick arcading and the proportions of the fermentation hall read better from the lawn than from within. Photograph it in the afternoon when the west face is lit. **It is a genuinely easy day trip.** Ushiku is under an hour from Ueno on the Joban Line and the chateau is eight minutes' walk from the station — no car, no bus, no planning. The Ushiku Daibutsu is fifteen minutes away by car if you want to make a day of it.

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