Fujii Shuzo· 藤井酒造

Takehara, Hiroshima Prefecture · Est. 1863

Takehara is sometimes called "the little Kyoto of Hiroshima" — a historic port town whose Edo-period streetscapes have been preserved almost intact. Fujii Shuzo has been brewing at the heart of it since 1863, and the brewery's philosophy has not drifted far from its origins: sake is not made by man, it is nurtured by nature.

That conviction has translated into an unusually strict set of commitments. Fujii Shuzo produces only junmai sake — no brewer's alcohol, no additives, nothing beyond rice, koji, and water. And since the 2023 brewing year, every single one of those sakes is made using the kimoto method with ambient yeast. Not many breweries anywhere in Japan can say the same.

Kimoto is the oldest yeast starter technique in sake brewing, and also the most demanding. Rice, koji, and water are combined in shallow wooden tubs, and brewers work through the night using long wooden poles to physically grind and pound the mixture — a step known as motosuri — working it into a smooth paste. This grinding breaks down the cell walls of the rice, releasing nutrients that encourage lactic acid bacteria naturally present in the brewery environment to flourish. Those bacteria acidify the mash, protecting it from unwanted organisms, and create the conditions for the brewery's own ambient yeast to take hold and drive fermentation. No cultivated yeast is introduced. The whole process takes close to a month. What comes out the other end is a starter of unusual complexity — and sake with a depth and character that faster methods simply cannot replicate.

Fujii Shuzo's flagship, Ryūsei, won first place at Japan's inaugural national sake awards in 1907. More than a century later, the brewery is still brewing by hand in the dark, still listening for the yeast that lives in the walls.