Taketsuru Sake Brewery
Taketsuru is a prominent building in the old town, with its grey plastered walls and latticed wood frontage. The cedar ball hanging at its entrance marks it as a sake brewery.
The oldest sake brewery in Takehara, Taketsuru started out as a salt maker in 1651. The family turned to sake production in 1733. During the Edo period when Takehara was a major salt manufacturing area, Taketsuru shipped its salt to Osaka and Edo, and much further north to Akita and Hokkaidō, via the Inland Sea and Japan Sea. The ships returned with rice. Taketsuru combined this rice with the pure local spring water to produce sake.
The brewery continues to use the traditional handmade production process of kimoto-zukuri, using naturally occurring lactic acid bacteria. Today, high-quality local rice from Hiroshima Prefecture is used at the brewery. This sake is a perfect match for fish from the Seto Inland Sea, and for Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki.
The brewery was the birthplace of Taketsuru Masataka, known familiarly as Massan, who went to Scotland in 1918 to learn the art of distilling whisky. He returned to Japan in 1920 with his wife, Rita Cowan, and went on to found Nikka Whisky.
Information
Name in Japanese: 竹鶴酒造
Pronunciation: take-tsuru-shu-zō
Address: 3 Chōme-10-29 Honmachi, Takehara, Hiroshima 725-0022
