Kobayashi Sake Brewery has been in business for 143 years! Kobayashi Sake Brewery, a long-established sake brewery

Do you like sake?
The Domingo editorial staff loves sake so much that we always end up buying sake on our trips and adding to our luggage before we know it. We also love the strong sake made by the Kobayashi Sake Brewery, which has a rich and powerful rice flavor.

Kobayashi Sake Brewery is a 143-year-old sake brewery.
Their mainstay sake is Kitano-Nishiki, and they sell many popular brands of sake such as Hokuto Zuisho, Maruta, and Fuyuhanabi, with a variety of about 30 different types of sake.
Kitanonishiki Online Shop

The Kobayashi Sake Brewery's theme is to make sake that is all about the rice producers and their climate. We use Hokkaido rice to make sake that really tastes like the rice it comes from."

Yonesaburo Kobayashi, 4th generation

Kobayashi Shuzo's sake is made from 100% Hokkaido rice. With the basic premise of making 100% Tokutei Meisho-shu (*), the sake is made according to the individual characteristics of the rice grown by the farmers in each region.

Specified name sake: Specified name sake refers to ginjo-shu, junmai-shu, and honjozo-shu, each of which can be labeled with its name if it meets the prescribed requirements. (From the National Tax Agency website )

Kobayashi Sake Brewery's Sake Brewing Along with the History of the Rise and Fall of the Yubari Coal Mine

The Kobayashi Sake Brewery is impressive for its 17 beautiful brick and stone warehouses that stand on a site of 10,000 square meters. They are designated as registered tangible cultural properties.

Image courtesy of Kobayashi Sake Brewery

How did the Kobayashi Sake Brewery grow so large as a sake brewery?
Let's take a look at the history of the Kobayashi Sake Brewery.

It all started back in 1878 (Meiji 11).
Yonesaburo Kobayashi, the first brewer, who was originally from Niigata, moved to Hokkaido and founded the brewery in Sapporo with the desire to "decorate Hokkaido with brocade. He ran a sake brewery using water from the Sosegawa River.

Around 1900, some 20 years after its founding, the Kobayashi Sake Brewery reached a turning point.
The Yubari Coal Mine flourished, and Kobayashi Brewery moved to Kuriyama-cho (then Kakuda-mura), near the booming city of Yubari, as it saw a steady flow of people and money to Yubari.

Image courtesy of Kobayashi Sake Brewery

Coal miners working at the Yubari Coal Mine risked their lives every day. They enjoyed drinking sake to relieve the fatigue of the day and to give them energy for tomorrow.
The acquisition of the right to supply sake to Hokutan (Hokkaido Coal Mine Steamship Co., Ltd.) was also a boost, and the sake sold like hotcakes, bringing the Kobayashi Brewery into its golden age.

The relationship between Yubari Coal Mine and Kobayashi Brewery does not end there. The brewery used the energy from the coal mined at the Yubari Coal Mine to produce sake, which was considered difficult in the extremely cold climate of Hokkaido. In this way, Kobayashi Brewery has grown along with the history of coal mining.

However, as time went on and motorization began after World War II, the Yubari Coal Mine declined rapidly. Sales of sake, which had been popular among the miners, dropped sharply along with the decline of the coal mines.

The decline of the coal mines prompted a change in direction, from sake brewing that emphasized "quantity" to sake brewing that emphasized "quality.
In 1985, the company began selling sake made from 100% Michi-grown rice, a long-held dream.

Kobayashi Sake Brewery: The Challenge of Yonesaburo Kobayashi, the Fourth Generation, to Revive the Brewery

Despite the success of producing sake made from 100% Hokkaido rice, the difficult times continued.

The current president, Yonesaburo Kobayashi, the fourth generation, joined the Kobayashi Brewery in 1989.
He worked for two years at a general company and then for two years in the oil industry at Nippon Oil Corporation, a client of Kobayashi Brewery, before returning to Kobayashi Brewery.

There was a time when I rebelled against taking over the family business. My maiden name is Yoneko Kobayashi, which means "to be filial to rice," right? It was already decided from the time I was born that I would take over the Kobayashi Brewery. Despite various conflicts, I decided to return to the Kobayashi Brewery.

When he returned, the Kobayashi Brewery was in a state where it could have collapsed at any time.

I wanted to bring life back to the Kobayashi Brewery and to the town, so I focused on two things. First, we wanted to turn the brewery into a tourist attraction. Second, to improve the quality of sake.

The first thing Yonesaburo Kobayashi, the fourth generation, did was to turn the brewery into a tourist attraction.
In 1989, he started the "Sake Brewery Festival," which opens the brewery to the public on the second Saturday and Sunday in April.
This annual festival is lined with food stalls, mostly local, and "nama nigori" sake is served only during these two days. Before Corona, the festival usually attracted more than 20,000 visitors every year.

Image courtesy of the Old-established Festival

In 1995 (Heisei 7), the "Kaburage Kitano-Nishiki Memorial Museum" was also opened.

This building was completed in 1944 and used as a bank and former head office. Today, it serves as a direct sales outlet for Kobayashi Sake Brewery's sake, making it a popular spot for sake lovers to sample and purchase sake at the same time.

On the second floor, approximately 5,000 pieces of sake vessels and utensils are on display, tracing the history of the Kobayashi Sake Brewery and allowing visitors to imagine what life was like back in those days.

Other related facilities, such as theKobayashi House and Kinsui-an, will also delight us.

When we opened the brewery to the community, we began to hear various comments from our customers. One of the most important comments was that "drinking Kobayashi Brewery sake gives me a headache," which may have been a turning point for Kobayashi Brewery.

Based on the feedback from customers who had been drinking Kobayashi Sake Brewery's sake, more efforts were made to improve the quality of the sake. The goal was to use local rice, koji, and water to create a sake with a pleasant thirst-quenching taste that could be felt in the local climate.

In 2009, the Kobayashi Brewery finally switched 100% of its rice to Hokkaido rice.

Enjoy this sake and experience the richness of Hokkaido and the town of Kuriyama.
Kitanonishiki Online Shop
Sake is only available when you are 20 years old.

Sake brewing possibilities with Hokkaido rice

Kobayashi Sake Brewery's sake made with 100% Hokkaido rice won a gold medal at the National New Sake Competition in 2005 for the second year in a row. It was the first sake made purely from Hokkaido rice.

Furthermore, Kitano-Nishiki has been highly acclaimed not only in Japan but also abroad.
At the Kura Master sake competition held in France, Kitano-Nishiki Junmai Daiginjo Haren Label won the Gold Award in the Junmai Daiginjo & Junmai Ginjo sake category in 2018 and the Platinum Award in the Junmai Daiginjo sake category in 2020.

Image courtesy of Kobayashi Sake Brewery

The demand for sake in the world is growing, spurred by the registration of Japanese cuisine as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage.
We would like to expand our exports to other Asian countries, such as Singapore, Taiwan, and China, where Kobayashi Sake Brewery currently exports sake, as well as to countries in Europe and other regions, in order to spread Hokkaido sake around the world."

Kobayashi Sake Brewery's evolution has not yet stopped.

Making Kobayashi Sake Brewery a "Sorachi Sake Theme Park

Yonesaburo Kobayashi, the fourth generation of the company, says, "I want to turn the Kobayashi Sake Brewery into a theme park for Sorachi sake.

We will look at tourism to open the brewery to the community by holding events such as a sake brewery festival, exhibiting history and tools, and setting up a restaurant, while at the same time making even better sake. Yonesaburo Kobayashi, the fourth generation, created the image of the open Kobayashi Brewery that we have today.

He says, "We didn't know what we had to do to make it work, and we just struggled and struggled and struggled to keep going. We always sense the changes of the times, change what needs to be changed, and preserve what needs to be preserved. We are always moving forward toward the future.

He is a truly wonderful person who is sincerely committed to the brewing of Kobayashi Sake Brewery and the local community.
There is no doubt that Kobayashi Brewery will become an even more interesting place in the future.