Takeda Shuzo

Takeda Shuzo is a tiny, family-run sake brewery in Ogata, Joetsu, on the coast of Niigata Prefecture. The brewery was founded in 1866, during the final years of the Edo period, by Seizaemon Takeda at Kamikobunatsuhama, a former landing place for fishing boats. The name Katafune, written as 潟舟, comes directly from this landscape: “kata” refers to the lagoons and wetlands scattered across the coastal dunes, while “fune” refers to the boats that once operated from the nearby harbour. The brewery remains remarkably small, with just four employees, and is now run by ninth-generation head Masanori Takeda alongside his son Takeshi, the tenth generation.

The character of Katafune is closely tied to its unusual coastal location. Takeda Shuzo sits close to the Sea of Japan, on top of a coastal sand dune. Rainwater slowly filters through the layers of sand before becoming the brewery's underground water source, producing soft, naturally filtered water with a character that the brewery considers fundamental to its sake. Unlike many producers in Niigata, which has become famous for the light, dry tanrei karakuchi style, Takeda has deliberately continued making a richer, rounder and more flavourful sake. The brewery describes Katafune as an umakuchi, or flavour-forward sake, balancing sweetness, acidity, bitterness, astringency and umami rather than stripping the sake down to something simply dry and delicate.

That individuality starts with the rice and continues through a deliberately hands-on brewing process. Takeda uses local sake rice including Koshitanrei and Koshiibuki, alongside Yamada Nishiki for some of its higher-end releases. Rice is polished, washed, soaked and steamed before being turned into koji, with the koji-making process carefully controlled by hand over around two days. The yeast starter then develops over roughly two weeks before the main fermentation begins. During the moromi stage, the rice, koji and water are added in stages, with the brewery using its own underground water and fermenting at low temperatures. The slightly harder character of the water is considered an advantage, contributing to Katafune's combination of richness and a clean, sharp finish.

The brewery's approach to tradition is less about doing things the old-fashioned way for its own sake and more about refusing to lose the character of its sake to excessive automation. Takeda's philosophy is essentially to pay attention: individual processes are carefully observed rather than simply handed over to machinery, with the brewers relying on experience and their own senses throughout production. Even the pasteurisation of some sake is unusually hands-on. Rather than heating everything rapidly in a machine, bottled sake can be slowly warmed one bottle at a time in a hot-water bath, a method known as binkan hiire. The sake is then stored at low temperatures, allowing it to develop additional sweetness and umami while maintaining stability.