“If we make good sake, people will support it.” That’s been our motto since Kokuryu was founded in 1804 in the mountains of Fukui. It’s an ancient land, nestled between snowy peaks and the Sea of Japan, not far from the main Soto Zen temple Eihei-ji. From a long tradition of sake brewing, Kokuryu today stands as one of the region’s few survivors. We grow our own rice. We seek out special yeasts. And we strive for the best in brewing and maturation, hand-crafting only the highest-caliber sakes in small batches.

Suzuka, Mie Prefecture, the home to our brewery, has long been known as Umasake Suzuka no Kuni, ‘Suzuka, the land of good sake’. The first recorded mention of this metonym is in the ancient book ‘The Record of the Times of Yamato-hime-no-mikoto’, the story of the then princess Yamato-hime-no-mikoto. The book describes her travels to find a fitting place to enshrine the sun goddess Amaterasu. Upon finding the site, where the Grand Ise Shrine still stands today, the princess declared “I hail from Suzuka, the land of umasake”. And so it was that Suzuka became associated with ‘good sake’.

The brewery of Morohashi Sake Brewery is located in the Tochio Basin between the Uonuma Hills and the Echigo Mountains in the eastern part of Nagaoka City. It is now Nagaoka City, but was called Tochio City before the merger.

Speaking of Tochio, it is the place where Kenshin Uesugi, a famous general from Echigo, spent his youth. After Kenshin called himself “Nagao Kagetora” at the time, the famous sake “Koshino Kagetora” was born.

“Kagetora was born in the 1969 Taiga drama Ten to Chi and, and thanks to the 2009 Tenchijin, it became a hot topic. I didn’t.”

Mr. Maki Morohashi, who succeeded his predecessor, Mr. Hiroo Morohashi, who passed away suddenly, and became the seventh generation brewery in 2016, spoke.

“My father, the predecessor, always told me to make sake that fits my standing. That is to make good sake on a scale that you can see without changing the taste that is loved.

Kiyasho Brewery was founded in the first year of Bunsei (1818) in Nabari city, Mie Prefecture by the 1st generation Shohachi Onishi. The brewery is registered as a Tangible Cultural Property by the government because of its historical value. Currently 6th generation and the head of the brewery, Tadayoshi Onishi leads the company. The Jikon brand was released in 2005 and immediately got the attention from sake journalists and fine wine lovers. Kiyasho’s driving goals are continually producing high quality sake, never resting on their laurels and aiming to develop finer and finer sake.