Niizawa

Established in the sixth year of Meiji, 1873. Niizawa Sake Brewery have two main brands – Atagonomatsu and Hakurakusei. Both are much loved by their local Miyagi community and increasingly further afield around the globe.

The current president, fifth generation Iwao Niizawa, became Miyagi Prefecture’s youngest brewmaster in 2000 and created the Hakurakusei brand in 2001. In a time where there were only words in the Japanese lexicon for a pre-meal or post-meal drink, Niizawa, through Hakurakusei, pioneered the idea that there should also be a food-pairing sake. This was known as shoku-chu-shu in Japanese, a sake that intensifies the flavours in the dishes it is paired with. Hakurakusei is brewed under the concept of the ultimate food-pairing saké.

In 2011 the Niizawa Sake Brewery located in Osaki city suffered irreparable damage during the Great East Japan Earthquake. They moved inland to Kawasaki town and rebuilt a new brewing facility. This brewery is dedicated to continuous improvement, always striving for high quality and world leading practise. In 2018 Iwao Niizawa promoted 22-year-old Nanami Watanabe to become Master Brewer also known as Toji in Japanese. At that time, she was the youngest female Toji in Japan, and she continues to excel in brewing technique.

In 2022 the brewery achieved great recognition for its high quality sake being awarded the International Wine Challenge Sake Brewer of the year for 2022 and followed this with a first place in the 2022 World Sakagura Ranking reflecting their award success and dedication.