Watanabe Shuzo

Watanabe Shuzo is a historic sake brewery in Hida-Furukawa, a small mountain town in northern Gifu Prefecture. The Watanabe family began brewing sake here in 1870, when the fifth-generation Kyuemon Watanabe decided to try to recreate an especially good sake he had encountered while travelling. The resulting sake became Hourai, the name that remains at the heart of the brewery today. More than 150 years later, Watanabe Shuzo is still family run, and its old brewery in the centre of Hida-Furukawa is itself a registered tangible cultural property.

Hida is particularly well suited to sake production. The town sits in a basin surrounded by the Hida Mountains and the Northern Japanese Alps, with long, snowy winters providing the naturally cold conditions traditionally associated with brewing. Water is especially important here: Watanabe draws mineral-rich underground water from a well around 55 metres deep at the brewery. Rice comes both from the surrounding region and elsewhere in Japan, with local varieties including Hida Homare and Hida Minori playing an important part in production. Different rice varieties, polishing rates and brewing approaches allow the brewery to make sake ranging from relatively rich, generous styles to much more precise and aromatic expressions.

Despite its long history, Watanabe Shuzo isn't interested in preserving tradition simply for tradition's sake. Much of the production remains hands-on, with a relatively small brewing team working closely with individual batches, but modern equipment and careful data collection are used where they can improve control and consistency. Rice washing and water absorption, for example, can be precisely controlled, while the more human parts of brewing remain firmly in the hands of the brewery team. Alongside the long-established Hourai range, Watanabe introduced its more modern W series in 2014, giving the brewery another way to explore different rice varieties and brewing styles.

There is also a slightly eccentric streak running through the brewery. Watanabe famously plays Japanese comedy recordings to one of its fermentation tanks, based on the idea that laughter makes happy sake, and visitors are invited to write positive messages on another tank. It sounds rather less serious than the obsessive precision normally associated with sake production, which is probably the point. Behind the jokes is a brewery that takes the technical side of sake extremely seriously, while still viewing it as something ultimately made to be shared and enjoyed rather than treated as a museum piece. The brewery has also developed a considerable following outside Japan, exporting internationally while remaining closely associated with the drinking culture of Hida.

Today the range stretches well beyond a single house style. Hourai remains the traditional flagship, while the W series puts greater emphasis on the character of individual sake rice varieties and includes bottlings made from rice such as Yamada Nishiki, Omachi and Aiyama alongside local Hida varieties. What ties them together is Watanabe's combination of exceptionally good mountain water, carefully selected rice, cold-climate brewing and a willingness to mix old-fashioned handwork with modern precision. It makes Watanabe Shuzo a particularly good introduction to contemporary Japanese sake: deeply rooted in its region and history, but curious enough not to stand still.