Yoshinotomo Shuzo Co., Ltd.

The Yoshinotomo Shuzo brewery was founded in Toyama City, Toyama Prefecture, in 1877. Even when food in Japan was scarce after World War Two, the brewery continued to make junmai sake, a type that contains only rice, koji, and water, without any added alcohol. It was also one of the first breweries to carry out all processes of sake production in-house, not just the sake brewing itself but also growing the rice and polishing it. The water it uses to brew sake, meanwhile, is drawn from 50-meter-deep wells in the brewery grounds. These wells are supplied with clear and delicious water from the Joganji River system, which itself takes water from the 3,000-meter peaks of the Tateyama mountain range.

Yoshinotomo Shuzo’s flagship sake is the eponymous Yoshinotomo, a dry junmai with an expansive flavor and refreshing aftertaste. It is an excellent sake for casual enjoyment. In addition to sake, the brewery also produces liqueurs and umeshu.

The brewery’s Kisaki series of sakes was launched in 2018 and won the Grand Prix at the Namazake Awards held in London that year. The series has seven products, with numbers in their names that refer to each sake’s rice polishing ratio. Even when using the same rice, koji, and water, different rice polishing ratios yield completely different flavor profiles. Kisaki has a sweet finish and has a rapidly expanding fanbase; it is already exported to Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, Singapore, Spain, France, Hungary, and the U.S. The brewery sells and ships Kisaki sakes directly to customers overseas on request.

One of Yoshinotomo Shuzo’s newest projects is the sale of “Aged Kisaki.” This sake is aged for between one and five years 1,000 meters underground at the site of the Super-Kamiokande, a neutrino observatory located under Mount Ikeno near the city of Hida, Gifu Prefecture. To purchase their own special aged sake, customers choose an aging period and sake from the Kisaki series, then their sake is shipped in June the year the aging is completed. Aged Kisaki can also be shipped overseas. In 2024, Yoshinotomo launched its HASU private-label sake brand, brewed specially for local distributors in New York and other cities on the American East Coast.

Yoshinotomo Shuzo is approximately 25 minutes by car from Toyama Station, or 15 minutes by car from Toyama Airport. Customers can sample sake at the brewery before purchase.