The Homeland of "Kokken"

This spot (bottom left photo) is the summit of Mt. Tashiro, designated as a National Park last year. It's a rare mountain with a marshland at its peak. The autumn foliage is beautiful, but my photography skills are lacking... It's a beautiful, conical mountain over 2,000 meters high.

In winter, I make my own snowshoes and enjoy animal tracking (top right photo). You can see many animal tracks, such as those of rabbits and tanuki. I plan to participate in the event again this year. Wait, what about sake brewing?

Brewing "Honest Sake"

Founded in 1877. All products are sake with specific designations. Production volume: 800 koku. Average polishing ratio this fiscal year: 55%. Using carefully selected sake rice and the pure water of Oku-Aizu as our brewing water, our motto is to produce "honest sake" through small-batch, handcrafted production. We meticulously manage everything, from raw material processing to storage, including rice, water, koji, and yeast.

The Daiginjo brewed by Nanbu Toji Yoshihiro Sato has won gold medals for four consecutive years and fourteen times in total at the National New Sake Appraisal. Furthermore, "Ichiyoshi," a Junmai Daiginjo made with yeast developed in Fukushima Prefecture, received the Governor's Award in the Junmai category at the Fukushima Prefecture New Sake Appraisal.

All sake bearing the name "Kokken" is brewed with care, one bottle at a time, so that consumers can enjoy drinking it.

The gate, photographed during the beautiful azalea season.

This is what the rice paddies looked like last year. The rice is a variety called "Yumenoka," Fukushima Prefecture's only sake rice developed locally.

A lot of snow this winter!!
Snow is one of nature's blessings that becomes our important brewing water, but we're quite struggling with the snow that's been falling since the end of the year. We've been told it's a mild winter, and while it's certainly not colder than usual, heavy, large snowflakes have been accumulating.

Sake brewing is done by hand, and so is snow shoveling. This is the situation as of January 14th.

It might be hard to tell from the photo, but it's still snowing.

Fukushima Spring Offensive!!
On March 20th (Sat) and 21st (Sun), sake breweries from Fukushima Prefecture will gather for a grand event in Koriyama City, Fukushima Prefecture. In addition to tasting various brands, delicious local Fukushima cuisine and snacks will be available. If you're interested, click here!
http://www.fuku-harunojin.jp

Win "Kokken (Tokubetsu Junmai)" Sake!

We are giving away a 720ml bottle of the Japanese sake featured in each installment of the "Wajo Waraku SAKE Academy" series on the web magazine OPENERS to three lucky winners.

If you wish to enter, please apply via the application form below.
Winners will be contacted directly.

We also welcome your "questions about Japanese sake." Those whose questions are selected will receive a popular sake from "Wajo Waraku." Please send us any terms you'd like to know about or any simple questions you may have.

Application Period: Monday, February 1, 2010 - Friday, February 26 (12:00 PM)


Applications are now closed.
Thank you for your many applications.