Ibaraki

Sake in Ibaraki

Ibaraki Prefecture lies in the northeast of the Kanto region and faces the Pacific Ocean to the east. In the one year from July 2024 to June 2025, sake was made at 25 places in the prefecture. Ibaraki's sake is made with water from five water systems: the rivers 久慈川 and 那珂川, the mountain 筑波山, the Kinugawa River and the Tone River.

Until recent years, Ibaraki's breweries kept a custom of entrusting their brewing to groups of toji (master brewers) from outside the prefecture, such as the Echigo toji of Niigata and the Nanbu toji of Iwate. To train local brewers, the Ibaraki Sake Brewers Association, together with the prefecture's Industrial Technology Innovation Center, started a certification system for “Hitachi toji” in fiscal 2019, and the first 3 people were certified in 2019. To be certified, candidates must pass examinations that include a written test, an essay, practical tests such as sake tasting, and an interview.

Rice and yeast (the microorganism that carries out fermentation) have also been developed in the prefecture. “Hitachi Nishiki,” a rice variety suited to sake brewing (shuzo kotekimai), is the prefecture's first such variety, developed by the prefecture's Agricultural Research Center. An application for its variety registration was filed in 2001, and in the same year it became a recommended variety of the prefecture. The prefecture's Industrial Technology Center spent about 6 years developing the prefecture's own “Hitachi yeast.” In fiscal 2001 the Ibaraki Sake Brewers Association launched “Pure Ibaraki,” sake made by combining Hitachi Nishiki and Hitachi yeast, and volunteer breweries among the 32 companies then in the association released it in the spring of 2003.

Brewery map

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