Yamachu-honke Shuzo

Yamachu-honke Shuzo Co., Ltd. is a sake brewery located in Hioki-cho, Aisai, Aichi Prefecture, Japan. The company's official website states that the year of foundation is unknown, and it is currently represented by Masahiro Yamada, the 11th-generation head of the family. All of its sake products are sold under the single brand "Gikyo." According to Japanese Wikipedia, this brand name dates from the Edo to Meiji periods: when sake prices soared, the brewery maintained its original prices regardless of profit or loss and honored its annual contracts with retailers, so the retailers presented it with the two characters "Gikyo," meaning "manly spirit." The brewery's character is closely tied to its ingredients. Its sake uses Yamada Nishiki from the special A-grade Tojo district of Hyogo Prefecture, and all of its ginjo sake is junmai. The brewing water is drawn from wells on the premises and is subsoil water from the Kiso River system, a slightly hard water. The brewery is small in scale, and more of its sake is consumed outside the prefecture than locally. The Gikyo lineup centers on rice-polishing ratio and aging. Its main junmai ginjo genshu comes in polishing ratios of 60%, 50%, 40%, and 30%, all using Association Yeast No. 9, with an alcohol content of 16–17%, and some are namazake and include multiple vintages. Above these are aged and blended sakes: "Kei" is a blend of junmai ginjo at 40% polishing, nakagumi, cold-stored and aged for more than three years; "Tai" is a cold-stored aged blend at 40% polishing; and the pinnacle, "Myo," is blended from multiple vintages of genshu at 30% polishing, cold-stored and aged in the brewery for more than five years, released in limited quantities from late November. Other labels include "Tomo," "Enishi," "Haruka," "Ryo," a junmai made with Gohyakumangoku from Toyama Prefecture, and "Wakamizu 1993," which uses Wakamizu rice grown in Aichi Prefecture. The brewery uses open pricing, with retail stores setting their own prices. Its award record is long-standing: gold prizes at the National New Sake Awards in 1978, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1984, and 1985, and awards at the Nagoya Regional Taxation Bureau New Sake Awards spanning the 1980s through 1990. Today, Yamachu-honke Shuzo remains a privately owned, family-run brewery, with the Gikyo official website as its public face, emphasizing rice, water, and patient aging rather than production scale.

Yamachu-honke Shuzo is a sake brewery in Hioki-cho, Aisai, Aichi Prefecture. Its own website states that the founding year is unknown (創業年 詳細不明), so the house is of considerable but undocumented age; the current head, Masahiro Yamada, is counted as the eleventh generation, implying a lineage of proprietors stretching back several centuries. The brewery's defining brand, Gikyo (義侠), carries a story that is central to its identity. According to the Japanese Wikipedia entry, the house once sold its sake to retailers under annual contracts. When sake prices soared in the Meiji period, the brewery kept to its old prices even at a loss and honoured every contract. In recognition, the retailers of the day presented the house with the name "Gikyo," meaning chivalrous spirit or manly honour — a name the brewery has used ever since. Through the twentieth century the brewery built a reputation for pure-rice sake made from top-grade rice. Its products are made entirely from Yamadanishiki grown in the Tojo Special A district of Hyogo Prefecture, and all of its ginjo-class sakes are junmai (no added brewing alcohol). The brewing water is drawn from a well on the premises and is soft-to-medium-hard subsoil water from the Kiso River. The house has historically sold more of its sake outside Aichi than within it. The brewery's competition record dates from the late 1970s: gold medals at the National New Sake Appraisal (全国新酒鑑評会) in 1978, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1984 and 1985, and prizes at the Nagoya Regional Taxation Bureau New Sake Appraisal in 1980, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1989 and 1990. In the modern era the brewery has concentrated on ageing and blending as its signature. Its top labels — Tahe (妙), Yo (慶) and Yasura (泰) — are blends of sakes held in cold storage for three, five or more years, released in limited quantities from late November. Alongside these, the core Gikyo junmai ginjo genshu line is offered at 60%, 50%, 40% and 30% polishing ratios, with namazake and vintage variations. The brewery also produces junmai genshu, a Gohyakumangoku series from Toyama, and Wakamizu 1993 from Aichi rice. It sells at open pricing, leaving final prices to retailers. Today the company remains a privately held, family-run brewery, presenting itself through its Gikyo website as a small house devoted to rice, water and patient maturation.

• 1982

  Gold medal at the National New Sake Appraisal; prize at the Nagoya Regional Taxation Bureau New Sake Appraisal.

• 1980

  Prize at the Nagoya Regional Taxation Bureau New Sake Appraisal.

• 1978

  Gold medal at the National New Sake Appraisal.

Small, family-run craft sake brewery; single-brand (Gikyo) house focused on pure-rice sake from Tojo Special A Yamadanishiki and long-aged blends, sold at open pricing.

• Tahe (妙)

• Yo (慶)

• Yasura (泰)

• Tomogara (侶)

• Gikyo Junmai Ginjo Genshu 60%

• Gikyo Junmai Ginjo Genshu 50%

• Gikyo Junmai Ginjo Genshu 40%

• Gikyo Junmai Ginjo Genshu 30%

• Kagari (燎)

• Gikyo Junmai Genshu 70% (specially cultivated rice)

• Gikyo Junmai Genshu 60%

• Gikyo Junmai Genshu 50%

• Gohyakumangoku Junmai Genshu 60%

• Gohyakumangoku Tokubetsu Junmai

• Enishi (縁)

• Haruka

• Wakamizu 1993

1. 1山忠本家酒造株式会社｜GIKYO 義侠・妙・慶（よろこび）・えにしgikyo.net
2. 2山忠本家酒造株式会社｜GIKYO - 山忠本家酒造についてgikyo.net
3. 3山忠本家酒造株式会社｜GIKYO - 商品のご案内gikyo.net
4. 4Yamachu-honke Shuzo (Wikidata)wikidata.org
5. 5山忠本家酒造 (Wikipedia JA)ja.wikipedia.org