福井県
Fukui
Sake in Fukui
Fukui Prefecture lies around the middle of Honshu, at the western end of the Hokuriku region. A mountain pass in the middle of the prefecture divides it into “Reihoku” in the north and “Reinan” in the south. These were originally separate provinces, “Echizen” and “Wakasa.” The Fukui Sake Brewers Association has 28 members (as of April 1, 2026).
Fukui Prefecture faces the Sea of Japan on its west side, and mountains over 1,000 m high line its east side. Winters bring many cloudy and snowy days. Reinan is influenced by the warm Tsushima Current and has a warmer climate than Reihoku. The Fukui Plain spreads across Reihoku, where rice farming has developed using the water of the Kuzuryu River and the Asuwa River. “Oshozu,” a spring in Ono City, has been chosen as one of the Ministry of the Environment's 100 Remarkable Waters of Japan.
Among rice varieties suited to sake brewing (shuzo kotekimai), Fukui is second only to Niigata Prefecture in production of “Gohyakumangoku” (estimate for the 2024 crop). The prefecture's agricultural experiment station developed “Sakahomare,” a shuzo kotekimai whose steamed rice dissolves about as easily as “Yamada Nishiki,” and this variety was registered in 2023. The prefecture's Food Processing Research Center develops yeasts (the microorganisms that carry out fermentation) for sake. One of them, “FK-801C,” is a yeast that produces aroma compounds like banana and like apple in good balance.
Brewery map
Breweries by municipality (dot size shows the number of breweries)Featured breweries
- Kokuryu Shuzo 黒龍酒造Eiheiji
The 36 breweries on our list are grouped by the municipality where they are located. Each dot marks a representative point of the municipality, not the brewery itself (featured breweries are shown at their actual locations). Locations are based on the address search of the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan.
Featured breweries
- Kokuryu Shuzo 黒龍酒造Kokuryu 黒龍 / Kuzuryu 九頭龍EiheijiRead the article