Tamanohikari (Tamanohikari Shuzō)
Founded in 1673, Tamanohikari Shuzō prides itself on its commitment to quality before profitability. The company has been brewing sake with care and attention to detail honed over the past three-and-a-half centuries. The staff closely monitors not only the kind of rice its suppliers provide but even how the rice is planted, making sure that each seedling has ample space to grow.
During the rice shortage of the postwar years, sake producers routinely added brewer’s alcohol to their sake. There were many benefits, including cheaper production costs and the pleasant effect it has on the sake’s flavor, but in 1964 Tamanohikari Shuzō made a bold decision to forgo brewer’s alcohol and embrace junmai sake, which is made with only rice, water, yeast, and kōji mold.
Tamanohikari took the hard route, crafting junmai at considerable cost to the brewery. The company struggled, but it stubbornly persevered with the conviction that over time the true taste of sake, as embodied by its junmai sake, would prevail.
Even today, Tamanohikari Shuzō brews only junmai and junmai daiginjō sake. The brewers use the henpei seimai technique of “flat milling.” It mills the grain in such a way as to remove the fat equally around the grain versus only from the ends, doing so ensures that as much of the rice kernel remains as possible, resulting in a luscious, smooth final product.
