
Junmai Ginjo Yamada Nishiki Morimasu
Koganei Sake Brewery | Kanagawa Prefecture
Koganei Sake Brewery
Koganei Sake Brewery is located in Atsugi City, Kanagawa Prefecture. In addition to sake, they have been producing alcoholic beverages using local ingredients in the water-rich area for over 200 years.
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Koganei Sake Brewery was founded in 1818 during the late Edo period in the naturally rich area of Atsugi City, where the first owner ran a small sake brewery with the sole desire to "run a business that benefits the world." In the surrounding area are the Nanasawa Onsen hot springs and local tofu shops, and in this area blessed with water, they have been producing naturally brewed sake using locally harvested rice and brewed with the brewery's own groundwater. Since then, they have dug wells on the brewery's premises and pumped up groundwater to use as brewing water, and even today they use the bubbling groundwater for brewing.
From the first generation who established the brewery to the current eighth generation, each head of the family has always tried their best to carry on the traditions while constantly taking on new challenges. In 8, the fifth generation head of the family built what was then the world's smallest "private hydroelectric power plant" using the Tamagawa River behind the brewery. In the Heisei era, under the seventh generation head of the family, the brewery also began producing beer, happoshu, liqueurs, and more.
The current eighth generation owner is not only involved in sake production, but is also working to promote regional cooperation and tourism by promoting new types of alcoholic beverages using local ingredients. As a historic sake brewery, the brewery has continued to make responsible social contributions and innovative sake brewing, preserving its traditions of over 200 years.
The representative brand is "Morimasu", a sake brewed with underground water from Higashi Tanzawa. The name was chosen to express the wish for continued prosperity, as the first head of the family called the store "Masuya". The sake is characterized by its crisp quality, making it a good drink to have with a meal, and has received high praise, including consecutive awards at various tasting competitions.
In addition to daiginjo sake and light, dry sake, they also focus on brewing and distilling in a way that is similar to the traditional methods of production that evoke history. They aim to create flavors that will be loved by many people by developing products that make use of the original flavors of the sake brewery that have been passed down since the first generation.
The desire to pass on history and tradition to the next generation is also reflected in the names of the sake they produce: Junmaishu, brewed with locally grown "Harumi" rice and groundwater from the brewery, is named "Junmaishu Denshiro" after the first, second and fourth founders of the family, while rice shochu, brewed and distilled from rice and water, is named "Rice shochu Yataro" after the third founder.
Although the brewers were originally invited from Echigo, due to a lack of successors and the aging of the brewers, they began training their own brewers. They learned sake brewing from scratch under a veteran Echigo brewer, and in 2002 they began brewing with a local brewer. They are also proactive in creating sake with new flavors that inherit the traditional techniques of the Echigo brewers.
They are also running the "Atsugi-Isehara Sake Rice Project," a first for the Atsugi-Isehara area, which is brewing sake using sake rice. They are also working to promote sake culture by involving many people, aiming to create local specialty products and promote local production and consumption through regional cooperation.
"I want to do business that benefits the world." The desire of the first head of the family transcends time, and as a sake brewery beloved by the people of Atsugi, the family will continue to weave history and tradition.