Kikuzakari Brewery, located in Kitakami City, Iwate Prefecture, produces many distinctive sake varieties, including its flagship brand, “Taxi Driver.” Takuya Fujimura, the brewery’s owner, took over as the fifth-generation head at the age of 30. While overcoming the hardships of the Great East Japan Earthquake, he steered the brewery toward becoming Iwate Prefecture’s first “all-junmai sake brewery,” using only rice grown in Iwate Prefecture. Each of these choices has shaped the unique character of Kikuzakari Brewery today.

Born as the fifth-generation head of a sake brewery, he became president at the age of 30.

Kitakami City is located in central Iwate Prefecture, where the Kitakami and Waga Rivers converge in a fertile basin dotted with rolling countryside. At the northern tip of the city stands Kikuzakari Sake Brewery Co., Ltd., which was founded in 1894 as Fujimura Sake Brewery. Following the consolidation and restructuring of sake breweries under wartime regulations, the company adopted its current name in 1951. Since then, it has continued to brew sake deeply rooted in the local community under brands such as “Kikuzakari” and “Onikenbai.”

“The heyday was during my grandfather’s time—he was the third-generation owner—and in the 1970s, we were producing approximately 4,000 koku (equivalent to 400,000 one-shō bottles) of sake annually. Since local consumption accounted for over 90 percent of sales, it seems we mainly produced everyday standard sake. My grandfather also served as chairman of the local tourism association, so he created various sake brands inspired by the region, such as ‘Onikenbai’ and ‘Shishi Odori’—traditional performing arts of the area—as well as the local song ‘Kitakami Yakyoku.’ There was also a soy sauce brewery on the same grounds, and with so many people working there, it was a bustling place.”

These are the reflections of Takuya Fujimura, the fifth-generation head of Kikuzakari Sake Brewery. He explains that ever since he was old enough to understand, he had always been aware that he would one day take over this brewery, which has been preserved by the Fujimura family for generations since its founding in the mid-Meiji period. “Until then, I wanted to do what I loved,” he says. After graduating from high school, he left his hometown, attended a vocational school, and worked as a game designer at a game development company in Tokyo. However, he returned home when his father—the fourth-generation head of the brewery—fell ill. Three years later, following his father’s passing, he assumed the position of president of Kikuzakari Sake Brewery. It was February 2003, and he was 30 years old.

“Make a sake that the owner of a yakitori restaurant would like.”

When Mr. Fujimura took over the brewery, the world was in the midst of a boom in authentic shochu. Meanwhile, sake consumption had been on a steady decline since peaking in 1974. Kikuzakari Sake Brewery was also affected by this trend; “By the time I became president, production had fallen to 500 koku,” he recalls. How could he preserve this brewery, which had lost its former vitality? The guiding principle that helped Mr. Fujimura find his way was his grandfather’s advice: “Make sake that the owner of a yakitori restaurant prefers, rather than sake that’s highly rated by judges at tasting competitions.”

“Apparently, that was something my grandfather often told his employees back when he ran the brewery. For him, ‘good sake’ meant the kind of sake that’s enjoyed in bars—what you might call a ‘meal-accompanying sake.’ So I decided to follow in his footsteps while crafting good sake through my own interpretation,” he explains.

To that end, the first step he took was to reevaluate the brewery’s approach to sake production. At the time, Kikuzakari Sake Brewery was also producing “Sanbai Zōjōshu*”—a type of sake diluted with water and brewing alcohol to increase volume—but as soon as Mr. Fujimura assumed the presidency, he discontinued its production and shifted the brewery’s focus to “Junmai-shu,” made exclusively from rice, rice koji, and water.

“I don’t want to compete on price; I want to deliver sake that I personally believe is good.” Driven by this desire, Mr. Fujimura began to think, “I want to create a new brand that reflects my own values and preferences.”

*A brewing method introduced to address postwar rice shortages, with the aim of producing more sake using less rice. Due to the 2006 amendment to the Sake Tax Act, this method is now effectively impossible.

“Remixing” various cultures. Taxi Driver marked his breakthrough.

Mr. Fujimura has an unconventional background as a former game designer and has also been active as an amateur martial artist. He has also long been a fan of niche subcultures such as music, movies, and manga. Given this background, for the first release of the new brand, he commissioned Kei Nemoto—a manga artist he deeply admires—to name the sake, and Takashi Uechi, a graphic designer known for his many pro-wrestling T-shirt designs, to create the label design. In 2004, the junmai daiginjo sake “Denki Bosatsu” was born.

Then, the following year, “Taxi Driver”—the brand that now represents Kikuzakari Sake Brewery—was born.

“It all started when I had a drink with art director Yoshiki Takahashi in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Since Mr. Takahashi had designed the packaging for some of my favorite movies, we hit it off right away. The conversation got lively as we discussed, ‘Let’s come up with a new sake brand,’ and ‘Taxi Driver’ was one of the many ideas that came up. We felt this could actually work, so we decided on the spot to bring it to market, and Mr. Takahashi agreed to design the label.”

When brewing “Taxi Driver,” Mr. Takahashi’s request was for “a sake that tastes good when served hot.”

“Sakes from Kikuzakari Brewery are known as dining sakes characterized by a robust umami and crisp acidity. They’re naturally well-suited for serving hot. So I thought we could create a sake that met his request without needing to make any special adjustments,” says Mr. Fujimura. Reflecting Mr. Fujimura’s own preference for “rich sake with a high alcohol content,” the sake was brewed as “junmai genshu”—pressed and bottled straight from the press without adding water to adjust the flavor. The result is a robust flavor that holds its own against the striking impact of the label design created exclusively by Mr. Takahashi.

Since then, Kikuzakari Sake Brewery has continued to collaborate with various creators, releasing sake with unique names and labels as the “Jacket Buy Series.” This “remix” of sake with different fields—such as music and video games—has also attracted the interest of people who don’t usually drink sake.

Affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake. While renting space in a brewery, they transitioned to a “100% Junmai Brewery.”

Kikuzakari Sake Brewery had been expanding its customer base by focusing on the production of junmai sake while also developing products and promotional campaigns that incorporated elements from other cultural fields. However, the company suffered a major blow from the Great East Japan Earthquake that struck in March 2011. Although Kitakami City is inland and thus escaped tsunami damage, the building was struck directly by a long, intense tremor. Fortunately, both the employees and the sake that had just been brewed were unharmed, but the brewery was left half-destroyed.

“When you factor in the completely destroyed soy sauce warehouse and other structures, the scale of the damage was immense. After receiving estimates from contractors, we realized that whether we repaired the building or demolished and rebuilt it, the costs would be astronomical. As the fifth-generation head of the Fujimura family, I couldn’t let this brewery—which our family had safeguarded for generations—disappear. Even though I felt that way, it wasn’t a sum of money we could easily raise.”

Since part of the brewery was still barely usable, he managed to resume sake production with minimal equipment; however, this was merely a temporary restoration with clear limitations. About three years had passed with no clear outlook for the future when a sake brewery in the neighboring city of Hanamaki decided to go out of business, and they agreed to lend him their brewing facility.

Although it was in a neighboring city, it was only about a five-minute drive from Kikumzakari Sake Brewery, and the water quality for brewing was virtually the same. Mr. Fujimura decided to relocate, planning to conduct brewing at the rented facility while handling shipping operations at the original brewery.

Then, in the spring of 2014, Kikuzakari Sake Brewery began brewing in its new location. At the same time, the company shifted its focus to becoming a “100% Junmai Brewery,” dedicated exclusively to brewing junmai sake.

Made with koji mold and rice from Iwate

Ever since Mr. Fujimura became president, Kikuzakari Sake Brewery had primarily focused on brewing junmai sake. While the brewery did produce a limited amount of “futsūshu” (standard sake) with added distilled alcohol for local consumption, demand for this type of sake in the local market has been declining year by year. Meanwhile, nationwide, the popularity of junmai sake has been rising as consumers increasingly seek authentic products. Particularly after the earthquake, driven by a spirit of support for reconstruction, the junmai genshu sake “Taxi Driver” began selling well in the Kanto and Kansai regions.

Against this backdrop, just as we were reviewing our production system with the goal of “increasing junmai sake production,” the decision was made to relocate the brewery. Mr. Fujimura seized this opportunity to commit fully to producing only junmai sake. “At the time, there were no other breweries in Iwate Prefecture producing exclusively junmai sake, so I thought, ‘Since we’re doing this anyway, let’s be the first in Iwate,’” he recalls.

The rice used as raw material is 100 percent grown in Iwate Prefecture. What’s particularly noteworthy is that the brewery primarily uses “table rice” rather than sake-brewing rice. “We used to use sake-brewing rice and even sourced Yamada Nishiki from other prefectures, but in the end, table rice produced a flavor that better suited my preferences,” says Mr. Fujimura. For example, “Taxi Driver” is made using “Kakehashi,” a table rice variety native to Iwate Prefecture. Although it was once widely cultivated as a prefectural recommended variety, production has plummeted due to the rise of new varieties. However, Mr. Fujimura maintains, “This rice is the very source of ‘Taxi Driver’s’ flavor,” and he continues to safeguard both its quality and quantity through contract farming.

Furthermore, for “koji”—a crucial element that determines the quality of the sake—the brewery uses “Reimei Hiraizumi,” a koji mold strain developed exclusively by Iwate Prefecture. This koji mold produces moderate amounts of glucose—the source of sweetness—and is well-suited for bringing out a sake profile ideal for aging, perfectly aligning with the brewery’s vision for flavor. The junmai sake brewed in this way is released as “unfiltered genshu”—without any dilution or filtration—to deliver its flavor directly to the consumer. This robust, unfiltered character—straight from the press—has become a defining feature of Kikuzakari Shuzo’s identity, captivating sake enthusiasts across the nation.

Shiki Brewing’s new brewery is complete. Back to the place where it all began.

Kikuzakari Sake Brewery’s “brewing in a rented facility” continued for about 10 years.

“We are the only sake brewery remaining in Kitakami City. Although we temporarily relocated to neighboring Hanamaki City, we always wanted to return to our founding location,” said Mr. Fujimura. However, the disaster-damaged brewery had undergone repeated expansions and renovations, resulting in a complex structure that made restoration difficult. Furthermore, in 2021, the roof collapsed due to the Fukushima Offshore Earthquake and heavy snowfall, damaging the boiler used for bottle washing and pasteurization.

Even so, Mr. Fujimura refused to give up on “rebuilding at the founding site.” Utilizing crowdfunding, he constructed a new brewery and an office/warehouse on the company’s headquarters grounds. In the summer of 2024, he resumed sake brewing in Kitakami. “We were able to return here in the milestone year of our 130th anniversary,” Mr. Fujimura said with a smile.

The new brewery is equipped with state-of-the-art facilities, enabling year-round brewing across all four seasons. They also introduced temperature-controlled thermal tanks, making it possible to handle the entire process—from mashing to bottling—within this single facility.

Meanwhile, for the pressing process—which separates the mash (moromi) into sake and sake lees—they adopted the “Sase-style” press. The Sase-style method involves stacking bags of mash inside a vat and applying pressure from above to extract the liquid. Although it involves the labor-intensive steps of bagging and stacking, the slow, gentle pressing—without excessive force—is said to result in a mellow sake with a smooth mouthfeel.

One reason for choosing the Sase method—which is by no means efficient—is that they had been using it for pressing during the 10 years they rented space at another brewery. “The press at the brewery we were renting was a Sase-style model manufactured in the Showa 30s,” says Mr. Fujimura. “It took at least three days, and sometimes as long as a week, to press a single tank of mash.” The fact that pressing takes time means the sake is exposed to air for that duration, accelerating oxidation. While this method is unsuitable for producing fresh, fruity sake, it proved effective for crafting sake with rich umami flavors suited for aging or serving hot. Furthermore, the refined sediment produced by the Sase-style pressing adds depth to the flavor, becoming one of Kikumori’s defining characteristics.

“Our brewery has always been known for sake with a robust flavor, and I believe the Sase-style pressing has further solidified that direction. “The Sase-style press at our brewery is state-of-the-art, so the pressing itself takes about a day. However, we press on the weekend and bottle the sake at the start of the week. By deliberately letting it sit for a few days, we ensure the flavor remains unchanged from before, while at the same time, the physical labor involved in tasks like transferring the sake has been reduced, making the process much more efficient.”

Bringing the unique flavors of this brewery to the rest of Japan and the world

“Now that our new brewery is complete, we’ll finally be able to stabilize our production system,” says Mr. Fujimura with high hopes. While local consumption once accounted for 90 percent of sales, out-of-prefecture sales now make up 70 percent. Sales in Osaka, in particular, account for more than half of the total. “It seems that people in the Kansai region tend to prefer sake with a robust umami flavor and a clean finish,” he explains. In recent years, inquiries from overseas have also increased, and the brewery has secured export deals to the United States, Italy, and New Zealand.

At the same time, he also hopes to expand his customer base in the Kanto region, particularly in Tokyo.

“To achieve that, I believe the key challenge is finding the right match with liquor stores and authorized dealers. I want to find partners who truly understand the direction of our sake-making and can convey that to customers in their own words, rather than just parroting our message. That’s one of my goals for the future,”

says Mr. Fujimura. While exploring new connections with liquor stores in the Kanto region, he is carefully nurturing relationships with stores and fans with whom he already has ties.

Bringing the sake that only this brewery can produce from Iwate to all corners of Japan—and to the world. Having made a fresh start from its “origins” at the founding site, Kikumori’s sake brewing is now heading into its next chapter.

The post Drawing strength from tradition and innovation, they remain committed to producing “100% Junmai Sake.” Takuya Fujimura of Kikuzakari Sake Brewery / Kitakami City, Iwate Prefecture first appeared on NIHONMONO.