Miyazaki

Sake in Miyazaki

Miyazaki Prefecture lies in the southeast of Kyushu and faces the Pacific Ocean to the east. The Miyazaki Sake Brewers Association has 37 members (as of October 2026). The association was formed in October 2003 when 7 sake brewers associations in the prefecture merged into one. In the association's introductions of its breweries, many breweries present their honkaku shochu (shochu made from ingredients such as sweet potatoes, rice, barley or buckwheat and distilled in a single-distillation still). In August 2007, the association registered “宮崎の本格焼酎” (Miyazaki honkaku shochu) with the Japan Patent Office as a regional collective trademark, a brand that carries the name of the region.

Sake breweries are very few. In the one year from July 2024 to June 2025, sake was made at only 4 places even when Miyazaki, Kagoshima and Okinawa prefectures are counted together. Sentoku Shuzo, in Nobeoka City in the north of the prefecture, is a brewery founded in 1903 that specializes in sake. It makes its sake with underground water of the Gokase River, whose source is in Takachiho, and with rice suited to sake brewing (shuzo kotekimai) grown mainly under contract in Miyazaki Prefecture.

Miyazaki Prefecture has its own rice variety suited to sake brewing, “Hanakagura.” Sentoku Shuzo makes a sake from this rice, “Tokubetsu Ginjo Hanakagura.” 雲海酒造, a shochu maker, also makes sake such as “初御代” at a sake brewery in Aya Town in the center of the prefecture (as of October 2026).

Brewery map

Featured breweries

• Sentoku Shuzo 千徳酒造Sentoku 千徳NobeokaRead the article