香川県
Kagawa
Sake in Kagawa
Kagawa Prefecture lies in the northeast of Shikoku. With an area of about 1,876 km², it is the smallest of Japan's prefectures. In the one year from July 2024 to June 2025, sake was made at 7 places in the prefecture.
Kagawa Prefecture has a Seto Inland Sea climate and gets little rain. The average annual rainfall in 高松 is 1,150 mm, and the rain is concentrated in the rainy season and the typhoon season. Most rivers in the prefecture flow from the Sanuki Mountains in the south into the Seto Inland Sea, but they are short and fast-flowing, and when it does not rain, little flow can be seen in them. On the Sanuki Plain, which spreads north of the Sanuki Mountains, more than 12,000 reservoirs are scattered.
In Kagawa Prefecture, a rice called “Ooseto” has been used as an ingredient for sake since 1980. To create sake unique to Kagawa, the Kagawa Prefecture Sake Brewers Cooperative, Kagawa University, the Kagawa Prefecture agricultural cooperative and Kagawa Prefecture worked together to develop “Sanuki Yoimai,” the prefecture's first original sake rice (rice used as an ingredient for sake). It is a cross between “Ooseto” and “Yamada Nishiki.” In March 2006 the four parties jointly applied for its variety registration, and in March 2007 sake made from this rice by 4 breweries in the prefecture was shipped for the first time.
Brewery map
Breweries by municipality (dot size shows the number of breweries)Featured breweries
- Maruohonten 丸尾本店Kotohira
The 6 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
- Maruohonten 丸尾本店悦凱陣KotohiraRead the article