Who will enjoy this brewery
- People who want to join a brewery tour (booking required) during a trip to Kochi and see the process of making sake (tours are held at the Tosa-gura brewery in Tosa City; there are no tours on Tuesdays)
- People who want to taste sake that can only be bought at the brewery before choosing a bottle
- People looking for sake to drink with Kochi’s fish dishes
- People who want to enjoy sweets made with amazake (a sweet rice drink) together with companions who do not drink sake
About Suigei Brewing
SUIGEI Brewing (酔鯨酒造) is a sake brewery with its head office in Nagahama (長浜), Kochi City, Kochi Prefecture (高知県高知市). It carries on a sake brewery founded here in 1872, and it has made sake as “Suigei Brewing” since 1969. Its brand is “Suigei (酔鯨)”.
The company has two breweries: the Nagahama-gura (長浜蔵) at the head office, and the Tosa-gura (土佐蔵), built in 2018 in neighboring Tosa City (土佐市).
The brewery travelers can visit is the Tosa-gura. It offers brewery tours that require booking (50 minutes, 1,000 yen per person). Each of the two breweries has its own brewery-owned shop, “SUIGEI STORE” (checked on September 30, 2026).
“鯨海酔侯”, the name taken by a lord who loved sake
The name “Suigei” comes from Yamauchi Yodo (山内容堂), the 15th lord of the Tosa domain (Tosa, today’s Kochi Prefecture) in the Edo period. Yodo loved sake more than anyone, and he called himself “鯨海酔侯”. It means “the drunken lord of the sea where whales live”. Because the brewery’s family at the time the company name was chosen also had ties with the Yamauchi family, the brewery took this name for the company.
Kochi Prefecture is a land surrounded by the Pacific Ocean and the Shikoku Mountains. Kochi has a local banquet dish called 皿鉢料理, in which food from the sea, mountains and rivers is served on large platters. Because this is a region that has valued banquets with food and sake, Suigei aims to be a “shokuchu-shu” (sake to drink with meals): sake that brings out the flavor of food and can be enjoyed until the end of a banquet.
Suigei’s sake making has its roots in the Akitsu toji (安芸津杜氏) of Hiroshima, who learned their craft in Nada (灘) in Hyogo and Fushimi (伏見) in Kyoto. A toji (master brewer) is the person in charge of making sake. In its early years, Suigei Brewing did not have enough equipment, and in a region with many well-known sake breweries, it was hard even to get people to pick up its sake. After the brewery welcomed the toji Kyoji Doi (土居教治) from Hiroshima in 1985, the quality of its sake improved. In 1987 it released “Ginrei (吟麗)”, and it expanded its sales nationwide, starting with Tokyo.
The brewery describes the taste it aims for like this:
“Suigei’s character is a full-bodied, dry taste that captures a perfect balance between a gentle aroma and a clean aftertaste.”
「酔鯨の特徴は、穏やかな香りとすっきりとした後味の絶妙なバランスを捉えた芳醇辛口。」
— from “Sake Brewing” (酒造り) on Suigei Brewing’s official website
Two breweries, and Kochi’s water and rice
The Nagahama-gura is a brewing building in the style of a Japanese house, close to Katsurahama (桂浜), which looks out over the Pacific Ocean. Here the brewery makes its everyday products, such as the tokubetsu junmai-shu and Ginrei introduced below.
The Tosa-gura mainly makes “junmai daiginjo”, sake made only from rice, rice koji and water, with more than half of the outside of the rice polished away. This includes the “HIGH END COLLECTION”, which the brewery places as its top range of products. The brewery buys its rice as brown rice and polishes it inside the brewery with a rice-polishing machine that can polish 1,800 kg at a time. It brews in small tanks so that fermentation is easier to control.
The tokubetsu junmai-shu and the junmai ginjo Koiku No.54 are brewed with water from the upper reaches of the Kagami River (鏡川). Here are three different types from the brewery’s products. Prices are the suggested retail prices on the brewery’s product pages (tax included, 720 ml) (checked on September 30, 2026).
- Tokubetsu junmai-shu — A “tokubetsu junmai-shu” made only from rice, rice koji and water, with 40% or more of the outside of the rice polished away. A year-round standard, 1,353 yen
- Junmai ginjo Ginrei — A “junmai ginjo” made only from rice, rice koji and water, with 40% or more of the outside of the rice polished away and fermented slowly at low temperatures. The sake rice is “Ginpu (吟風)” from Hokkaido. 1,673 yen
- Junmai ginjo Koiku No.54 (高育54号) — The sake rice is “吟の夢”, the first sake rice bred in Kochi Prefecture. In developing the variety, the Kochi Prefectural Agricultural Technology Center was in charge of breeding, and Suigei Brewing was in charge of brewing trials. The product name comes from the trial number used during breeding. 2,000 yen
Visiting the brewery
Brewery tour of the Tosa-gura (booking required)
Suigei Brewing holds brewery tours at the Tosa-gura in Tosa City. Booking is required. The tour follows the actual order of the process, from polishing the rice to washing, steaming, making koji (steamed rice on which koji mold has been grown), mashing and pressing. After the tour, you can taste two cups of sake made at the Tosa-gura.
| Tosa-gura tour (checked on September 30, 2026) | |
|---|---|
| Days | Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday (no tours on Tuesdays) |
| Times | ① 10:30–11:20 ② 12:30–13:20 ③ 15:00–15:50 (50 minutes) |
| Fee | 1,000 yen per person (tax included). Includes two cups for tasting and a Suigei ochoko (a small sake cup) |
| Booking | Required. Use the application form on the official website. Each tour is limited to 10 people |
| Meeting time | You change into tour clothing, so please arrive 10 minutes before the start |
| Note | Tasting is not offered to people who are driving |
| Brewing season | Sake is brewed from October to May. No brewing takes place at other times of the year |
| Other languages | Guidance in English is not published. Please check with the brewery before booking |
SUIGEI STORE (brewery-owned shops)
At the SUIGEI STORE at the Tosa-gura, you can taste (for a fee) and buy junmai daiginjo and freshly pressed limited sake that can only be bought at the Tosa-gura. There is also “SAKE LAB CAFE”, a café serving alcohol-free sweets made with amazake and sake lees (sake kasu: what remains after sake is pressed).
The SUIGEI STORE at the Nagahama-gura is on the head office grounds and carries all Suigei products.
| Tosa-gura | Nagahama-gura | |
|---|---|---|
| Address | 高知県土佐市甲原2001-1 Open in Google Maps | 高知県高知市長浜566-1 Open in Google Maps |
| Opening hours | 10:00–17:00 | 10:00–17:00 |
| Closed | Year-end and New Year holidays (sometimes closed on other days) | Sundays and public holidays (may open during consecutive holidays) |
| Phone | 088-856-8888 | 088-821-8003 |
Opening hours were checked on September 30, 2026.
Getting there
- Tosa-gura: About 40 minutes by car from Kochi Station and about 50 minutes by car from Kochi Ryoma Airport (高知龍馬空港). Free parking is available
- Nagahama-gura: About 20 minutes by car from Kochi Station and about 30 minutes by car from Kochi Ryoma Airport
These times are the brewery’s guide for travel by car (checked on September 30, 2026). If you go by car, the driver cannot take part in tasting. Drinking and driving is prohibited by law.
Opening days and tour arrangements may change. Please check the brewery’s official information before visiting.
Where to buy Suigei Brewing’s sake
To buy at the brewery, go to the SUIGEI STORE at the Tosa-gura or the Nagahama-gura. The brewery’s official online store does not sell sake by the single bottle; it sells snacks to go with sake, sake vessels and gift sets.
Stores that sell Suigei
The brewery publishes a list of stockists on its official website. There are 445 stores across Japan, 28 of them in Kochi Prefecture (checked on September 30, 2026). From the list, we have chosen stores that are easy to drop in at during a trip.
| Area | Store | Address | Store / facility website |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kochi City | 土佐の地酒市場 | 高知県高知市帯屋町2-3-1 ひろめ市場 Open in Google Maps | ひろめ市場 |
| Kochi City | アールアンドダブリュ株式会社（高知大丸内） | 高知県高知市帯屋町1-6-1 Open in Google Maps | 高知大丸 |
| Kochi City, Katsurahama | SOUVENIR SHOP BOOTS | 高知県高知市浦戸6 桂浜公園 海のテラス Open in Google Maps | 桂浜公園 |
| Tokyo Station | はせがわ酒店 グランスタ店 | 東京都千代田区丸の内1-9-1 JR東京駅構内地下1階 Open in Google Maps | はせがわ酒店 |
| Tokyo, Ginza | まるごと高知 | 東京都中央区銀座1-3-13 オーブ プレミア1階 Open in Google Maps | まるごと高知 |
| Tokyo, Shinjuku | 伊勢丹 新宿店 | 東京都新宿区新宿3-14-1 地下1階 Open in Google Maps | 伊勢丹 新宿店 |
| Osaka, Umeda | 阪神梅田本店 | 大阪府大阪市北区梅田1-13-13 Open in Google Maps | 阪神梅田本店 |
| Osaka, Namba | 髙島屋大阪店 | 大阪府大阪市中央区難波5-1-5 Open in Google Maps | 大阪髙島屋 |
| Kyoto Station | ジェイアール京都伊勢丹 | 京都府京都市下京区烏丸通塩小路下ル東塩小路町 | ジェイアール京都伊勢丹 |
For other stores, and for each store’s phone number and opening hours, please check the list.
Before you buy
- The products a store carries change with the season and stock. Limited and seasonal products may not arrive, so please check with the store before visiting.
- Suigei has many products, and the ingredients and brewing methods differ from product to product. Please check the label for the type.
- 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 |
|---|---|
| Brewery | 酔鯨酒造株式会社 (SUIGEI Brewing Co., Ltd.) |
| Founded | Carries on a sake brewery founded in Nagahama in 1872. Named “Suigei Brewing” since 1969; reorganized as a joint-stock company in 1972 |
| Representative | Representative Director 竹内孝久 |
| Address | 〒781-0270 高知県高知市長浜566-1 (head office, Nagahama-gura) / 〒781-1113 高知県土佐市甲原2001-1 (Tosa-gura) Open in Google Maps Open in Google Maps |
| Phone | 088-841-4080 (main) |
| Main brand | Suigei (酔鯨) |
| Brewing water | Water from the upper reaches of the Kagami River (from the product information for the tokubetsu junmai-shu and the junmai ginjo Koiku No.54) |
| Official website | https://suigei.co.jp/ (English pages available) |
| Brewery tours | Available (Tosa-gura; booking required, fee charged, closed on Tuesdays) |
| Brewery shop | SUIGEI STORE (Tosa-gura and Nagahama-gura) |
| List of stockists | Published on the official website (445 stores nationwide; checked on September 30, 2026) |
| English support | The official website has English pages. English guidance for tours is not published |