As the previous Head of the Shiga Sake Brewery Association their hearts are is fully invested in protecting and supporting the local community, and ensuring traditional brewery methods are kept whilst innovating with new flavours.

Fujii Honke was established in 1831 and are honored to be the sole brewery to provide Sake for the Imperial Harvest Festival to the Japanese Imperial Court and shrines all over Japan. Based on the banks of Lake Biwa in Shiga prefecture the climate is ideal for Sake brewing. The water comes from the Suzuka mountain and takes 100 years to be filtered perfectly for brewing. 

They are at the forefront of reintroducing Wataribune rice to Shiga. This rice is sensitive and difficult to grow and is the parent seed of Yamadanishiki. Through supporting their rice farmers, this rice produces stunningly smooth distinctive Sake. Most of their rice is also environmentally and organically grown.

As with all our breweries they stand by traditional methods, for example they produce the yeast starter mash using the traditional Kimoto method instead of commercial lactic acid. This takes double the time, effort, skill and risk but produces a pure Sake. Buildings within their brewery are registered as Cultural Properties and their natural earthen walls keeps the perfect temperature and humidity for brewing.

Sakeportal is privledged to be their Sake export partner.

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Wataribune rice specialist

Innovative blends of rice

Traditional brewing techniques including Kimoto and shizuku

“EIKUN,” the pure rice, premium sake made from the pure and simple ingredients of Kyoto rice, water, and yeast

The ancestors of the Saito family moved from Senshu  to Kyoto and it was in the 1895 that Saito Sake Brewery was born.

Since then, they have carefully nurtured the brewery in the Showa and Heisei eras, and now create the highest quality sake and have received high praise across the world.

Eikun is proud to have won the Gold Award for 14 consecutive years at the National New Sake Appraisal, becoming the most successful brewery in this history of the awards. Eikun has become a watchword for tradition and high quality sake.

Made from 100% Kyoto rice, water, and yeast, the pure-rice premium sake “EIKUN” is well regarded both in Japan and overseas.

Sakeportal is privledged to be their Sake export partner.

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Supporter of innovative revival rice project

Head brewer belongs to the elite Nanbu Tojii

Rice comes from Special Historic Preservation Farming District

Award winning Hanazakari brewery (formerly Hanamori brewery) was founded in 1898 on the banks of the beautiful Kisogawa river.

A great find by Sakeportal as they have very recently gained great respect in the Sake world and had great  articles in significant Sake publications highlighting their traditional Artisan brewing techniques which are rarely used by brewers these days.

They slow drip the Sake through mesh bags with pressure from bamboo shoots and they are the only brewer in Japan to continue to use a manually operated press.

These techniques produce the finest Sake with a distinct flavour.

We thoroughly expect Hanazakari will start winning many more awards in the coming years.

A True Artisan, traditional Sake brewer.

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Specially made Koji by box method.

Traditional time consuming brewing techniques.

One of the few remaining breweries to continue to use a manual press to keep authentic sake flavours.

Using Omi’s high-quality rice and Hira Mountains underflowing sweet, soft water, Fukui brew Sake with the belief that “it is not for drinking, but for tasting”; meaning the more you drink the mellower and more fulsome their Sake becomes. Fukui’s Sake is diverse but always with that underlying tone of smoothness and mellowness and a refreshing aftertaste.

Fukui has been brewing Sake for over 260 years and their name comes from the Japanese clovers that bloom on the shores next to their brewery. Fukui brews Sake valuing the nature and community around them and excel in the ingredients they choose from their high quality rice to the soft water. They produce Sake in all four seasons to reflect the changing scenery of the area and use some time-honored techniques that date back to the Edo period! (1600-1800’s).

They brew using a variety of traditional rice (Yamadanishiki, Nihinbare, Ginbukiyuki etc.) and in 2002, in order to preserve the beautiful rice terraces, they started to buy Koshihikari rice from the terrace farmers. After much trail and error they succeeded in making a well-acclaimed Sake and continue supporting the local rice terrace farmers.

As an innovator in Sake they not only produce extraordinary Sake but they are also pioneers in  low-alcohol Sake and amazing real fruity, fruit Sake.

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Innovative flavours and sake

Local sourcing and supports local rice farmers

Main supporter to revive Satoyama rice terraces

Award winning Joyo brewery was founded in 1895 and is a 4th generation brewer. They are based in south Kyoto, a rich natural area blessed with a temperate climate and on the Kizu river.

They focus on producing the highest quality Sake in small batches.

They use water drawn from their own well 100 meters underground and they grow only the highest quality 5 million stone and Yamada rice. The management stands by traditional brewing techniques as they believe it produces the purest Sake. Their brewers are highly skilled 40 year veterans of their craft.

Most of the work is done by hand using traditional methods. They put their heart and soul into each bottle. They believe in locally sourcing and supporting local companies wherever possible.

Their Sake is noted for it’s fresh and striking impression after extraction, firm rice flavour and refined acidity.

A Sake Brewer with local roots and local sourcing.

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Subterranean water pumped from their own 100 meter well.

Specialist in Gohyakumangoku rice sake

No carbon filtering to maintain pure sake

Akita’s ancestors have been obsessed with the wonders of fermentation for hundreds of years without scientific theory or refrigerators, and have been steadily devising ways to make them delicious.

“Kinmon Akita Sake Brewery Co., Ltd. became the current organization in 1973 (Showa 48) however, their Sake brewing dates back to 1936 (Showa 11), when the Akita Fuji Sake Brewery was founded. It was named after the second highest mountain in Tohoku situated between Akita and Yamagata, officially “Chokaisan”, which was commonly known as Akita-Fuji. Akita-Fuji has a special meaning to the people in and from Akita because the mountain has traditionally been the object of worship where people believed that it was the main source of fertility in the great rice plain of Akita. 

Their belief is that Sake brewing is nothing more than exploring a new world of tastes that goes beyond just evaluating the taste of Sake alone. While firmly maintaining the traditional roots of Sake and considering the origin of Sake, Kinmon are eager to seek a breakthrough to the unknown horizon with Sake that has an umami that no one else can imitate.

They put their soul into making sake that is unique to Akita’s rice, water, and nature.

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Uses the same brewing techniques since its founding

Specialists in Aged and storing sake

High quality local rice producing area

At Kikkawa Brewery, sake is brewed by pumping subterranean water, which is naturally filtered and clear, from three wells. It is this water and the expertise which continually produces sake that has an individual character and has been highly evaluated in Japan.

Founded in 1912 (First Year of Taisho) at the foot of the rainy mountain (Tanzawa Oyama), the brewery started by carefully making small amounts of sake over time.  The “Hard water” contains a lot of minerals such as magnesium and calcium and the sake is brewed by traditional methods, even nowadays the basic stance of carefully making a small amount of sake does not change.

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Specialists in 90% polishing

Pure rare hard mountain water

Non-milled rice