Kobe - Visiting Sake Breweries in Nada-Gogo

Post date: Wednesday, October 11, 2017

A beautifully scenic cityscape and excellent sweets are not the only charming things Kobe has to offer.

Nada-Goro (Five villages of Nada,) called “Japan’s Best Sake Brewing Area,” is located along the coastal area in Kobe City and Nishinomiya City. In Nada-ku and Hiagshinada-ku, there remains 3 villages (Nishi-go, Mikage-go, and Uosaki-go) where many sake brewers have gathered allowing Nada-ku maintain its place as the major sake brewing area in Japan.

Here are a few suggested brewers you can visit and try without any reservations.

Kiku-Masamune Sake Brewery Museum

http://www.kikumasamune.co.jp/kinenkan/

The Kiku-Masamune Sake Brewery Co., Ltd. has been brewing sake for more than 350 years. For visitors, they have a museum covering the history and process of sake brewing. In the exhibit rooms, various types of old equipments used in the process of brewing sake are on display. Most of these items are designated as Important Tangible Folk Cultural Properties. You can experience tasting freshly brewed sake as well as other types of sake in their tasting area.

HAKUTSURU Sake Brewery Museum

http://www.hakutsuru.co.jp/english/culture/museum.html

HAKUTSURU SAKE Brewing Co., Ltd., founded in 1743, has opened a museum in an old sake brew house maintaining its original form when built in the early 1900’s. It displays various types of sake brewing equipment with life-sized mannequins of workers, as well as showing a video of the sake brewing process. You can enjoy tasting some special sake that is only available at the museum.

KOBE SHU-SHIN-KAN BREWERIES

http://www.shushinkan.co.jp/

FUKUJU is a sake brewer that became well-known due to it (for several years) being the sake regularly served during the banquet dinner for the Nobel Prize award ceremony. This brewer has opened a traditional Japanese restaurant in an old wooden sake brew house built in the late 1800’s. They serve Japanese cuisine together with special freshly made sakes. You can enjoy their FUKUJU Blue Label sake, which was the sake served during the Nobel Prize banquet dinner, as well as other versions of its original sakes.