Who will enjoy this brewery
- People staying in Kobe or Osaka who are looking for a sake brewery facility they can reach by train (you can walk there from the nearest station)
- People who want to see how sake used to be made, in a sake brewery building and with tools that were actually used
- People who want to taste sake at a brewery-owned store before choosing a bottle
- People who are interested in the development of sake rice varieties (sake rice: rice suited to making sake)
About Hakutsuru Sake Brewing
Hakutsuru Sake Brewing (白鶴酒造) is a sake brewing company with its head office in Higashinada Ward (東灘区), Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture. Its brand is “Hakutsuru (白鶴)”, the same name as the company.
In 1743, Zaimokuya Jihei (材木屋治兵衛) started a sake brewing business, and in 1747 the brand name “Hakutsuru” was given. The head office is in Mikagego (御影郷), one of the five sake brewing districts called Nada Gogo (灘五郷, the five districts of Nada).
The history of Hakutsuru Sake Brewing overlaps with the events of the city of Kobe. In the war damage of 1945, the company lost 90% of its brewing storehouses, and in the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake of 1995, the museum and the wooden storehouses were damaged. The “Hakutsuru Sake Brewery Museum”, which travelers can visit, reopened in 1997, two years after the earthquake.
The land of Nada
Nada (灘) is a coastal area stretching from Nada Ward in Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture, to Nishinomiya (西宮市). The five districts (Gogo) are Nishigo, Mikagego, Uozakigo, Nishinomiyago and Imazugo.
There are several conditions that helped Nada grow into a sake-producing area. In winter, a cold wind called “Rokko Oroshi (六甲おろし; a cold wind off Mount Rokko)” blows from Mount Rokko toward the Seto Inland Sea, which made it easier to cool steamed rice. For rice, there is “Yamada Nishiki (山田錦)”, a sake rice from Hyogo Prefecture. For people, many toji (master brewers; the people responsible for sake making) came from the Tamba (丹波) region of Hyogo Prefecture to work at the breweries of Nada. The finished sake was loaded onto sailing ships called “taru kaisen (樽廻船)” and carried to Edo (today’s Tokyo) and other places. The water is underground water from the Rokko mountain range.
These are descriptions of the Nada area. Which water and which rice Hakutsuru Sake Brewing uses differs for each product.
On June 28, 2018, the name Nada Gogo was designated by the Commissioner of the National Tax Agency as a geographical indication (GI; a system that protects the names of production areas) for alcoholic beverages. Only sake (seishu) that meets the set production standards and has passed an inspection can be labeled “GI Nada Gogo”.
Handmade and machine-made, and sake rice grown by the company
Hakutsuru Sake Brewing continues both sake making by machine and sake making by hand.
In machine brewing, data is collected at each step, and even the aroma and acidity are analyzed as components to manage fermentation. On the other hand, some products, such as “Tenku (天空)”, are made by hand at every step. For example, rice koji (steamed rice on which koji mold has been grown) is made in machine brewing with equipment that controls temperature and humidity by computer, while in handmade brewing it is divided into small boxes called “koji-buta” (麹蓋). For pressing, too, machine brewing uses a press, while handmade brewing uses “fukurozuri” (袋吊り): the moromi (fermenting mash) is put into bags and hung, and only the drops that fall naturally are collected.
Hakutsuru Sake Brewing also has a sake rice that it developed itself: “Hakutsuru Nishiki (白鶴錦)”. In 1995, the company began developing it by crossing “Yamadaho (山田穂)”, the mother variety of Yamada Nishiki, with “Wataribune No. 2 (渡船2号)”, a close relative of its father variety, and it was registered as a variety in 2007. In 2015, the company set up an agricultural corporation, Hakutsuru Farm Co., Ltd. (白鶴ファーム株式会社), and grows Hakutsuru Nishiki in Tamba-Sasayama (丹波篠山市), Hyogo Prefecture. Since 2012, it has also supplied Hakutsuru Nishiki to other breweries.
One of the products made only from this Hakutsuru Nishiki is “Hakutsuru Shoun (翔雲) Junmai Daiginjo, made with company-grown Hakutsuru Nishiki”. It is a “junmai daiginjo”: sake made only from rice, rice koji and water, with more than half of the outer part of the rice polished away.
Visiting the brewery
What travelers can visit is the “Hakutsuru Sake Brewery Museum (白鶴酒造資料館)”. “Honten Ichigo-gura” (Head Office Storehouse No. 1), which was built in the early Taisho period (1910s) and actually made sake until March 1969, was opened as a museum in 1982. It is not a facility for touring brewing equipment in operation today.
Inside the museum, old-style sake making is recreated step by step, from washing the rice to filling the barrels, with life-size figures and real tools, and each step is also explained in videos. On the 1st floor there is a “sake tasting corner” where you can taste sake, and a shop that sells limited products available only at the museum. Near the end of the exhibits, you can try on the work clothes of an old sake shop’s clerks and take photos.
| Hakutsuru Sake Brewery Museum (checked on September 30, 2026) | |
|---|---|
| Opening hours | 9:30–16:30 (admission until 16:00) |
| Closed | The New Year holidays (late December to early January). Please check the official page for other closing days |
| Admission | Free (self-guided visit with no guide) |
| Booking | Not needed for fewer than 10 people. Groups of 10 or more must book online |
| Sake tasting | The sake tasting corner on the 1st floor. The price is not published |
| Other languages | The official website has museum information pages in English, Chinese and Korean. Whether English-speaking guides or staff are available is not published |
| Phone | 078-822-8907 |
Construction of a new brewing storehouse is under way on the head office grounds, and part of the museum’s parking lot cannot be used (checked on September 30, 2026). If you go by car, please take care not to drink and drive.
Hakutsuru Sake Brewing sometimes holds an event with free admission called “Sakagura Kaiho” (brewery open house) at its head office. In 2026, it was scheduled to be held on May 23. Please check the official announcements for the next date.
Getting there
- Hanshin Railway: About a 5-minute walk from Sumiyoshi Station on the Hanshin Main Line. The Hanshin Main Line connects Osaka-Umeda Station and Kobe-Sannomiya Station, and Sumiyoshi Station is along the way
- JR: About a 15-minute walk from JR Sumiyoshi Station
Please check which trains stop at Sumiyoshi Station, and their times, on the Hanshin Railway official website.
Opening days and tour arrangements may change. Please check the brewery’s official information before visiting.
Where to buy Hakutsuru Sake Brewing’s sake
Besides the museum shop, there are the following two brewery-owned places to buy (checked on September 30, 2026).
Hakutsuru Mikage MUSE (白鶴御影MUSE) is a showcase store run directly by Hakutsuru Sake Brewing. The sake is arranged by type, such as special designation (tokutei meisho), and there is a corner where you can taste for free, as well as seasonal paid tastings. It also stocks small 300 ml bottles.
| Address | 神戸市東灘区御影中町3-2-1 |
| Opening hours | 10:00–21:00 (closed irregularly) |
| Nearest station | A 1-minute walk from the north side of Mikage Station on the Hanshin Main Line |
| Phone | 078-891-8901 |
The Hakutsuru Online Shop is the brewery’s official online store. However, delivery is limited to addresses in Japan, and shipping takes about a week from the order. Only credit cards issued under contracts made in Japan can be used. It may be difficult to receive an order during a short stay, so please read the user guide carefully before using it.
- If you are taking sake home abroad: Bottles over 100 ml cannot go in your carry-on bag before security screening. Put them in your checked baggage, or buy them at a duty-free shop after security screening. Please check in advance what applies if you have a connecting flight, and the import limits of the country you are arriving in. → Travel tips
Brewery facts
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Company | 白鶴酒造株式会社 (HAKUTSURU SAKE BREWING CO.,LTD.) |
| Founded | 1743 (the 3rd year of the Kanpo era) |
| Representative | President and Representative Director Kano Kenji (嘉納健二) |
| Address | 〒658-0041 兵庫県神戸市東灘区住吉南町4丁目5番5号 Open in Google Maps |
| Phone | 078-822-8901 (head office) / 078-822-8907 (Hakutsuru Sake Brewery Museum) |
| Main brands | Josen Hakutsuru (上撰 白鶴), Hakutsuru Shoun (白鶴 翔雲) |
| Official website | https://www.hakutsuru.co.jp/ |
| Facility for visitors | Hakutsuru Sake Brewery Museum (free admission; no booking needed for fewer than 10 people) |
| Brewery-owned shops | The Hakutsuru Sake Brewery Museum shop / Hakutsuru Mikage MUSE / Hakutsuru Online Shop (delivery within Japan only) |