
Souten Den Kura no Hana Junmai Daiginjo
Otokoyama Main Store | Miyagi Prefecture
Otokoyama Main Store
Kesennuma is one of Japan's leading port towns, boasting Miyagi Prefecture throughout the country. Located on the Pacific coast, this area has been blessed with rich nature and has been home to fresh seafood throughout the seasons since ancient times. Otokoyama Honten was founded here in 1912. Their goal is to create sake that will make seafood even more delicious.
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Kesennuma is a treasure trove of delicious seafood, facing the Sanriku coast, one of the world's three largest fishing grounds. A food culture unique to fishing areas has developed here, and sake, which is closely linked to food, has also been highly valued. Otokoyama Honten has been brewing sake here for over 100 years.
The three-story head office building, made of reinforced wood and concrete and completed in 1932, was designated a national tangible cultural property in 3 and has been loved by locals as a symbolic sake brewery representing Kesennuma. However, the head office building was completely destroyed in the Great East Japan Earthquake, and the storehouse was also lost. Fortunately, the brewery, which was located on higher ground, escaped the damage and operations were able to resume the following day. The first president, who was the great-grandfather of the current head of the family and experienced the Meiji Sanriku earthquake and tsunami, decided to build the brewery on higher ground, which proved to be a good move.
Otokoyama Honten has always placed great importance on creating a flavor that pairs well with fish, and on brewing sake hand in hand with local farmers who work hard to grow rice. In 1997, they began brewing sake that could only be made in this area using "Kuranohana," the first rice variety suitable for sake brewing in Miyagi Prefecture.
Their flagship brand, "Soutenden," was launched in 2002 with the idea of "making a local sake that is unique to Kesennuma." The name was chosen with the aim of creating a "clear, refreshing taste like the blue skies of Kesennuma."
After several years of trial and error, the flavor profile of Soutenden was finalized. The sake is made using Kura no Hana rice grown in the Nijuichi district of Kesennuma, which is located on the border with Iwate Prefecture and has the cleanest water in the city. The sake has a clean texture that goes well with fish dishes and a crisp aftertaste.
Another representative brand, Kesennuma Otokoyama, was bestowed upon the founder, Shoji Sugawara, by the chief priest of Iwashimizu Hachimangu (Otokoyama Hachimangu) in Fushimi, Kyoto, when he offered a prayer of thanks for the fulfillment of his wish to receive a manufacturing license from the Hachimangu. It can be enjoyed in a wide variety of ways, depending on the drinker's tastes and drinking style, such as as pure rice sake or ginjo sake, and is a brand that gives a sense of the history of Otokoyama Honten.
Even after the earthquake, Otokoyama Honten continues to make sake in close contact with the local community, such as continuing to cultivate "Kura no Hana" rice with contracted farmers. In 2022, the first female chief brewer was appointed. While preserving tradition, the brewery is evolving every day to create sake that is more unique to Otokoyama Honten, with new perspectives.
To commemorate the 2023th anniversary of the company's founding in 110, the company will release a mine tunnel-aged sake called "Otokoyama Honten Junmai Ginjo Shikaori Gold Mine Stored Sake." The sake is aged for one year in the mine tunnels of the Shikaori Gold Mine, a cultural asset that is part of the Japan Heritage "Michinoku GOLD Romance," which supported the golden culture of Hiraizumi, the capital of the Oshu Fujiwara clan.
Spreading the wonders of sake and Japanese culture from Kesennuma to the world. Otokoyama Honten will continue to pass on the history and traditions that have been passed down thanks to its harmony with the natural blessings of Kesennuma to the future.