The Yamaki Brewery was established in 1862 during the Tokugawa Shogunate. The definitive sake that it produces, the Otokoyama range, was named after the famous Shinto Shrine, Otokoyama Hanchimangu, now known as the Iwashimizu Hachimangu. Fans of the Yamaki Brewery include Japanese Emperors, and Shoguns of the Tokugawa lineage.

The Yamaki Brewery is renowned for exercising the utmost care in producing its sake, choosing quality in small batches over commercial success. Drinking sake made by the Yamaki Brewery will allow you to have a better understanding of the lengths the brewery has went to ensure that its sake meets the most exacting standards.

The Brewery is dedicated to sourcing its ingredients exclusively from Yamanashi Prefecture due to the superior quality of the water and rice in the prefecture. It uses a variant of rice called Asahi no Yume, or Asahi’s Dream exclusively. Sake produced from this variant of rice has a reassuring fragrance matched by a refreshing taste.

Two of the brewery’s products won awards at the Tokyo Regional Sake Awards: (1) Kaiotokoyama Naka, named after the brewery’s founder, Yamaki Nakauemon, and (2) Kaiotokoyama Karaguchitsukuri.

Yamaki Shunji has strived to upkeep the legacy associated with his namesake since he was born. The fifth-generation owner of the brewery also serves as the Master Brewer. He is dedicated to preserving the excellent traditions of the brewery. He is passionate about sake pairing, and has gone to great lengths to study how sake can best complement food, refining existing products, and creating new variants of sake in the process.

The exclusivity of the brewery’s sake is reflected in its annual production volume of 20,000 liters.