小林酒造Kobayashi Shuzo

Mayumi Kobayashi had credentials that the brewery barely knew what to do with. She had worked as an instructor at the Iwate Prefectural Brewers' Institute, trained in the methods of the Nanbu Toji school, and arrived at her husband's family operation in Oyama with a clearer picture of what good sake required than anyone currently making it there. She stepped aside anyway, letting the existing toji run things, for years.

It was local sake retailers who finally pushed her to take over fully. When she did, the change was immediate and physical. Rice steamed in traditional wooden-vessel kettles over direct flame. Koji cultivated entirely by hand. Pressing done by gravity drip, not machine pressure, yielding sake that was clear and delicate in a way that mechanical pressing doesn't quite match. Mayumi became one of Japan's rare female toji. The brewery, which had been producing fewer than ten batches a year when her husband Masaki returned in 1991, found its direction.

Kobayashi Shuzo was founded in 1872 in what was then called Mita Village, a stretch of flat plains south of Nikko where underground water from the mountain range surfaces close to the ground. The village name, Mita, means "beautiful rice paddies." When Oyama City absorbed the area in 1963 the name disappeared from maps. It lives now only in the brand: Houou Biden, the phoenix of the beautiful fields.

Gold medals at the National New Sake Appraisal in 2004 and again in 2005 brought the brewery to national attention. Houou Biden has since earned a place in JAL first-class cabins on domestic and international routes. In 2022 the brewery opened Hishogura, a second facility dedicated to training the next generation of brewers without abandoning the craft methods that made the name.

Key Facts

• Founded 1872 in Mita Village (now Oyama City), Tochigi; the village name means "beautiful rice paddies" (美田).
• Brewing water: subsoil water (伏流水) from the Nikko mountain range, surfacing throughout the Oyama plain.
• Brand name Houou Biden (鳳凰美田): "Houou" (鳳凰) is the mythical phoenix; "Biden" (美田) honors the original village name.
• Fifth-generation owner Masaki Kobayashi returned 1991; his wife Mayumi became toji, one of Japan's rare female master brewers.
• Mayumi trained in Nanbu Toji methods; uses direct-flame steaming, hand-crafted koji, and gravity-drip pressing.
• Gold medals at the National New Sake Appraisal 2004 and 2005; now served in JAL first-class cabins internationally.
• 2022: Hishogura secondary brewery opened in Oyama for next-generation brewer training.