How Sake Town Saijo developed

Shusen-kan or the hall where Sake wells up

Saijo is a community of decent scale. Quite a few Sake breweries, however, stand close to each other; eight breweries near JR Saijo Station and one about 13 kilometers away.

But why does Saijo have this density of Sake breweries? Has it been like Nada and Fushimi, proud and established Sake production sites for centuries?

In a nutshell, Saijo is a Sake town of the 20th century and its history of modern development is something to tell.

Good water, good rice, and suitable winter weather, which Saijo is blessed with, are crucial keys for producing good Sake; but human effort makes a significant difference in the end. 

There were those who tried to learn; people involved succeeded the efforts of their forerunners and continued to improve. Some upgraded brewing techniques or cultured new species of Sake rice; others thought how they could strengthen competitiveness in the market; and there was a young engineer who invented a machine in 1931 capable of milling Sake rice further down to 40% of the original weight. Which contributed to the birth of Ginjo Premium Sake.

In 1894, the Sanyo Railways expanded its eastbound service as far as to Hiroshima. Saijo Station, located some 30 kilometers west of Hiroshima Station, was built at that time. A brewery owner persuaded townspeople to have a station built in the center of the community where some breweries stood. Part of the shrine precincts became the station. That way, Saijo came to have an advantage in shipping.

And the fact that should not be forgotten is that the government was eager to improve the Sake industry because the Sake tax could provide quite a high percentage of the national revenue.

No wonder a national Sake laboratory was established in Tokyo in 1904 under the jurisdiction of Finance Ministry, not the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. Later a prefectural laboratory of the same nature was established in Hiroshima and again some years later in 1928 a Saijo branch was formed and its new buildings were constructed in the next year on the premises next to Kamoizumi Brewery. Now they are owned and made use of as Shusen-kan and Aisen-kan by Kamoizumi.

Shusen-kan has a café, where you can sit down and enjoy coffee, tea, sweets, and Kamoizumi Sake. Of course you can buy their products there. There’s also a Sake library where Sake books are collected and a video introducing how their sake is made can be seen. The second floor has a large Tatami-matted room which can be rented for holding events.

Behind Shusen-kan stands Aisen-kan where you can try indigo-dying if arranged in advance.

There’s the other building from the former laboratory sometimes used for holding little concerts.

These buildings, once part of the laboratory, are now revived with different functions. 

Max from Korea in Shusen-kan, wondering which sake to buy