Rare sake from Japan’s easternmost brewery with more than 130 years of experience

Founded in 1887, Usui Katsusaburo Shoten is a long-standing sake brewery known as Japan’s easternmost brewery. Most of their sake is produced in limited quantities and is hard to get outside of the local area. The first-generation proprietor, Katsusaburo Usui, moved to Hokkaido in 1875, where he established a cannery and a sake-brewing business, laying the industrial foundations of Nemuro. Despite being in a region where rice could not be grown, he deliberately chose to begin brewing sake by importing sake rice from Honshu in the south. Asked why, the fifth-generation head of the brewery, Minako Usui, explains, “In the past, sake transported all the way from the Osaka area to Nemuro used to be extremely expensive. I’ve heard that the founder wanted to make sake here so that more people could drink it.” The brewery also provided jobs during winter and, to this day, kombu fishers work there in the off–season. The brewery’s commitment to the local people runs deep. A monthly gathering of local sake enthusiasts, which started spontaneously in September 1971, continues today. 

*Information accurate as of July 2025