Sawada Shuzo Chita Peninsula Sake – Artisan Craft
May 29,2025
May 29,2025
The Sawada Shuzo saké brewery is located in Tokoname, Aichi, well known for its Tokoname-yaki pottery, and not far from Chubu Centrair International Airport. Sawada Shuzo has been crafting saké nurtured by the land, wind, and water of Chita Peninsula ever since its founding in 1848. We visited the brewery right in the middle of the brewing season and spoke with Sawada Kaoru, the sixth-generation owner.
Chita Peninsula is noteworthy for its unique food culture that is deeply rooted in the land. This food culture has given rise to fermented seasonings rich in umami flavor like tamari soy sauce [a dark and rich tasting soy sauce] and soybean miso. Similarly, Sawada Shuzo produces saké characterized by a full-bodied flavor with a strong finish that embraces the flavors of the land. Sixth-generation owner Sawada Kaoru smiles as she says, “This is a truly local taste, passed down and enjoyed here for generations. It might not be what you’d call trendy today, but it’s the kind of taste that makes people say, ‘When all is said and done, this is how saké should be.’ Having said that, we are not above experimenting with new flavors.”
Sawada Kaoru, the sixth-generation owner of Sawada Shuzo
Chita Peninsula, which faces Ise Bay and Mikawa Bay, has long been blessed with a warm climate and nutrient-rich soil. These conditions underpin a thriving agricultural sector that produces soybeans, wheat, rice, and other crops. They are also a major part of the peninsula’s flourishing fermentation culture.
The winds that sweep through this region in winter also play a significant role in saké brewing.
“Although Chita Peninsula’s climate is temperate, in winter, winds carrying cold Siberian air masses arrive from the Chinese mainland and sweep down through the pass between Mount Ibuki and the Yoro Mountains. These cold winds, known as Ibuki Oroshi, create the cool conditions that breweries need to produce saké.”
The terrain is easily accessible by ship, which fostered a vibrant maritime trade in the Edo period (1603 to 1868). Saké breweries, in particular, shipped a tremendous amount of product to Edo (now Tokyo), taking advantage of their faster delivery times than from Nada in Hyogo, another major saké producing region.
“At its peak, Chita Peninsula was the second-largest saké producing region in the country, with records showing that there were 227 breweries here in 1871. Only a handful remain today, but this region once experienced a glorious age.” Sawada explained how the combination of geographical factors and the wisdom of locals gave rise to Chita Peninsula’s brewing culture.
The ingredients for saké are very simple. One of these, rice, is the most critical in determining the quality of saké, according to Sawada. Sawada Shuzo commissions local contract farmers to grow rice specifically suited to its saké using reduced-pesticide methods.
Since its inception, the brewery has always used spring water found in the central hills of the peninsula for its brewing water.
“The water drawn at a brewery must be not only safe for drinking but also suitable for brewing saké. The spring water we draw is gentle, soft water and without it, we couldn’t make saké that’s true to the land. Spring water can be baffling, however. The spring water source just a few meters from here contains properties that make it unsuitable for brewing. So I’m truly grateful that our spring water continues to this day to suit our saké.”
Sawada adds that they only use part of the water drawn at the brewery to make saké and that they return the rest to Ise Bay.
“The reason we can continue to operate as a small brewery is because the natural environment has been preserved. The water we benefit from circulates and returns to the sea. One of the values I hold on to is that human activities are never far removed from the cycles of nature. And I pray that our clean, pure water continues to flow for all time.”
Sawada Shuzo has always crafted all its saké — from regular saké to top-grade daiginjo saké — using time-honored methods. Two important pieces of equipment for this process are koshiki, wooden vats, and koji buta, rectangular stacking trays.
Saké brewing begins by soaking in water rice that has been milled and carefully polished. Koshiki are used to steam the soaked rice.
“Our wooden koshiki are essential to making consistent koji,” says Sawada
“Many breweries have stopped using wooden koshiki because of their lower thermal efficiency and the cost of maintaining them. Wood, nevertheless, is a sensible material with excellent heat retention and insulation properties, making it highly suitable for the steaming process. You can’t make good koji rice malt without steaming the rice properly first. What you aim for with rice that will be inoculated with koji mold is rice that is hard on the outside and soft on the inside. You can consistently achieve this ideal condition by steaming rice in koshiki.”
After the steamed rice is inoculated with koji mold, koji buta are used in the process of making the koji. Few breweries still use koji buta today, and even those that do typically reserve them for brewing premium daiginjo saké. Sawada Shuzo is an outlier, as it employs koji buta for all its saké production.
“Four years ago, we had a fire that destroyed our koji room. Prior to rebuilding, we reviewed our workflow and discussed with our master brewers how we should produce koji going forward. All of them immediately said they felt producing koji with koji buta was worth the effort and that they wanted to continue using koji buta in the new koji room. Seeing how decisive and unified they were, we decided to build the new koji room designed specifically for koji buta. Seen through the lens of modern values, this choice might seem foolish, coming from a place of ignorance. But this is how we’ve always done things, and we continue to produce koji with koji buta, believing the path we’ve chosen is the right one.”
Sawada says that immediately after the fire in which Sawada Shuzo lost its koji room, four other local breweries produced koji for them so they could resume saké production the following year. The koji room was also rebuilt with the support of many people, including fellow brewers.
Despite the labor and the inefficiencies, Sawada believes that their process delivers a flavor that can be achieved by no other means. Rather than merely inheriting a tradition, she chose to continue it and produce a taste that is distinct to Sawada Shuzo.
Traditional knowledge and skills of saké-making with koji mold was inscribed on UNESCO’s List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2024. Sawada Shuzo’s method of making saké is the perfect example of the practice recognized by UNESCO.
Yeast is propagated in a mixture of prepared koji, steamed rice, and water to cultivate yeast culture and create the shubo — the starter culture or mother of saké. There are two methods to make shubo: kimoto, which utilizes natural lactic acid bacteria residing in the brewery to eliminate unwanted bacteria, and sokujo-moto, which adds food-grade lactic acid bacteria to suppress unwanted bacteria and promote alcoholic fermentation. Nearly all breweries today use the sokujo-moto method; Sawada Shuzo has also been using the sokujo-moto method since the Meiji period (1868 to 1912). According to Sawada, few people know how closely involved Sawada Shuzo was in the development of the sokujo-moto technique.
“Before the sokujo-moto method existed, making shubo with the kimoto method always ran the risk of spoiling the saké due to the proliferation of a type of lactic acid bacteria called hiochi-kin. This bacteria would turn an entire batch of saké cloudy white and cause it to sour and spoil. Hiochi-kin was such a formidable enemy and risk for breweries that even the wealthiest brewery could be forced out of business if it struck three times in a row.”
And it wasn’t just saké breweries that were afraid of hiochi-kin. The shogunate government and the country, which relied heavily on saké taxes as a major revenue source, feared the bacteria just as much. Therefore, finding a way to prevent outbreaks of hiochi-kin became a desperate concern for both breweries and the nation. Taking on the challenge was the Houjou Group, an association organized by saké brewers on Chita Peninsula.
“Sawada Giheiji, the third-generation owner of Sawada Shuzo, was a member of the Houjou Group and spearheaded various initiatives, including establishing a brewing school. He also set up a testing facility approved by the Houjou Group here at our brewery. In 1905, he invited Eda Kamajiro, an engineer from the former Ministry of Finance’s National Research Institute of Brewing, to the facility and the pair embarked on developing a technique to prevent spoilage by hiochi-kin. The R&D they conducted here led to the establishment of the sokujo-moto technique, which was quickly adopted throughout the country.”
A letter from Sawada Gizaemon, the brewery’s founder, addressed to Wakatsuki Reijiro, the Minister of Finance at the time. The letter reports that, under the instructions of engineer Eda Kamajiro, the method of adding lactic acid bacteria to shubo has shown promising results.
Sawada hopes to tell more people about how the efforts of Chita’s brewers and distillers formed the basis of the technological innovations in modern saké brewing.
“Some saké enthusiasts might think Chita Peninsula has little to offer because it doesn’t have many breweries. The truth is Chita Peninsula occupies an important place in the history of saké brewing. In my opinion, it’s an extraordinary region where you can really appreciate the breadth of fermentation.”
Steamed rice, koji, and water are slowly added to the prepared shubo in three stages (a method called sandan-jikomi) to create the moromi mash, which progresses through saccharification and fermentation. Over a period of approximately 20 to 40 days, this mash is transformed into saké.
For centuries, saké brewing has been practiced on Chita Peninsula, which was, for a time, Japan’s second-largest saké-producing region. Many saké aficionados have long cherished saké from Sawada Shuzo, which upholds traditional brewing methods. Still, Sawada has been wrestling with how to respect these patrons while at the same time enlightening more people about the taste of Sawada Shuzo saké.
“I was truly moved when a person from outside the prefecture once told me: ‘Nothing else measures up to the taste of Hakuro, Sawada Shuzo’s signature saké.’ There are people who try out various flavors of saké, move on from them, and then stumble upon the taste of unpretentious local saké.
“Our saké will definitely never be a mass-market saké. At the same time, I struggle sometimes with the thought of whether it’s enough to simply stick to the local flavor without making any changes. My sole focus at the moment is to continue making the best saké we can.”
Sawada’s concern is evident in her words.
Saké consumption peaked in 1973 and has been declining ever since, now standing at about one-third of its former level. Given Japan’s shrinking population and the fact that the main consumers of saké are now in the 50 to 89 age cohort, the saké brewing industry faces the serious dilemma of how to boost the numbers of saké drinkers.
“Here, at Sawada Shuzo, we’ve been making concerted efforts to bring more people to the brewery. My father began with open-brewery events and in my time, we’ve created a space where people can enjoy a drink as they shop. We want people to come and see and enjoy traditional saké brewing while also increasing the number of people who connect with our craft. If we can get more people from other prefectures and even other countries to visit us on a yearly basis — much like visiting a distant relative, I think there is potential to transform our brewery and the saké industry as a whole.”
Sawada Shuzo has a shop for direct-to-consumer sales of its products. At the back is a space where saké devotees can enjoy a drink.
Sawada Shuzo launched the Sasarake Project. Supervised by saké director Tanaka Junko, the project pairs Sawada Shuzo’s local Hakuro saké with Tokoname-yaki saké cups crafted by four artisans. Visitors can sense first-hand how the cup you select changes the taste of saké.
This endeavor, however, is bigger than one company can handle alone, says Sawada.
“Here, we have all kinds of delicious seafood straight from the surrounding bountiful ocean, fruits and vegetables that thrive in the warm climate, and succulent types of meat such as Nagoya Cochin chicken. We also have Tokoname-yaki tableware for serving meals. I believe Chita Peninsula, even in Aichi, is blessed with all the best aspects of gastronomy. That’s why there’s been a growing movement to involve chefs in initiatives to promote the area. It’s still a close-knit movement of like-minded people, but we want to expand it much further going forward.”
Sawada is thus determined to continue her quest to have more people experience Chita Peninsula, which is brimming with food, cultural, and historical attractions, while continuing to deliver the taste of Sawada Shuzo.
The direct-to-consumer outlet store is open from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (Closed Sundays, public holidays, and during the year-end holidays)
Note that opening hours may change without notice. Ask ahead for details.
By car:
Head south on Prefectural Road 252 (Tokoname Kaido). Sawada Shuzo is on the right-hand side about one minute from the Kumanocho 1-Chome intersection. Parking is available for about 10 cars.
By bus:
Take the Gruun Tokoname community bus and get off at the Koba bus stop. Sawada Shuzo is close by the bus stop.