Message

Our motto is “Kurabito, craftsmen should unify their minds in harmony”.
It has been said since the old days that good Japanese sake can be produced only when all craftsmen’s minds are harmonized into one. We put this words on the front entrance of the brewery, Wajo-Gura and keep it in our mind as our motto.

Raw materials of Japanese sake are water and rice. Each year when we start to produce sake, we are most careful about the quality of the material rice. We need to thoroughly check the material rice we receive, especially about its matureness and whether it has any cracks. Every year Toji, brew master returns to be a beginner in rice evaluation in that we never receive the same rice.
Our material rice is all produced in Niigata prefecture, and about its 80% is sake-brewing suitable rice produced by our contract farmers. The process of rice polishing is also done within our brewery to suit the kinds of sake. Even under such favorable conditions, sake production takes much craftsmen’s physical strength in the process of a thorough check of rice, of sake brewing with full use of the skills and five senses, and of finishing up. Bearing in mind that invisible microbes can feel our hearts, we will keep our good health and devote ourselves to good sake production.

I clearly remember the sight that 45 years ago the then Prime Minister of Japan, Kakuei Tanaka from Niigata prefecture and the then Premier of People’s Republic of China, Enlai Zhou toasted with our sake at the banquet after the signing ceremony of normalization of diplomatic relations between Japan and China.
Niigata having been an agricultural prefecture since the old days, some people started going out to engage in sake production during the winter, agricultural off-season about 400 years ago at the beginning of Edo period, which was the origin of the skillful craftsmen’s group, Echigo-Ryu. We are determined to maintain the technique, Echigo-Ryu established and handed down to us by our predecessors.

Niigata prefecture has three treasures.
First, we have Niigata Prefectural Sake Brewing Research Institute, which is the only one prefectural research institute in Japan focusing on Japanese sake research. Each research staff member yearly presents their researches to workers from all breweries in the prefecture.
Secondly, we have the Niigata Sake School which admits only workers from breweries in Niigata prefecture.
Lastly, we have Echigo-Tojis who have handed down Echigo-Ryu from their predecessors.
We cherish these three treasures, offer good and safe sake to our customers, turn an attentive ear to them, keep our spirits high, sing our sake-making song, “Utmost delicious sake, KOSHINOHOMARE”, and then push forward with sake production full of joy and happiness.