Kashima City is one of the most famous brewery areas in Saga Prefecture. This land is blessed with pure water from the Taradake mountain range and high quality rice. Sake brewing has been popular here since the Edo period, and even now, there are six operating breweries (five sake brewing companies) within the city.

“Nabeshima Daiginjo” made by Fukuchiyo Shuzo, one of the six breweries, was chosen as the Champion Sake, the world’s highest honor, in the International Wine Challenge (IWC) in 2011. The IWC is a competitive exhibition for wine, and is considered the world’s largest and most authoritative competition of its kind. Since the award, Kashima City has come to be known as “the birthplace of the world’s greatest sake,” and the city has been receiving attention from within the prefecture and beyond, including an increase in visitors. Furthermore, since 2013, three breweries in the neighboring Ureshino City have joined forces to promote sake brewery tourism in the region.

Begin your journey to meet the sake brewers of Kashima and Ureshino, who have been producing delicious sake on this land for generations.