玉乃光酒造Tamanohikari Shuzo

In 1964 Tamanohikari did something that looked, at the time, like bad business. It went back to brewing junmai-shu, sake made from nothing but rice, water, koji and yeast, with no distilled alcohol added to stretch the batch.

To understand why that was strange, you have to know what most sake was in 1964. Wartime rice shortages had pushed the industry toward sanzoshu, sake bulked out with added brewing alcohol and, often, sugars and acids. It was cheap to make and it sold. Pure rice sake had nearly vanished as a commercial category. Junmai needs as much as 1.8 times the rice of an alcohol-added batch for the same volume, so reviving it meant choosing to spend far more on raw material for every bottle. Tamanohikari chose that anyway, and it is widely credited as leading the postwar return to junmai. The brewery has made nothing but pure rice sake ever since.

The house is older than the decision by nearly three centuries. Nakaya Rokuzaemon obtained a brewing license in 1673 in Wakayama, in the Kishu domain ruled by a branch of the Tokugawa family. The records say roughly twenty breweries held that license; Tamanohikari is the only one still operating. The name itself comes from faith rather than marketing: generations of Rokuzaemon were devoted to the Hayatama shrine in Kumano, and "Tamanohikari" reads as the light of a sacred jewel.

After the Second World War the brewery could no longer make sake in its original location and moved to Fushimi, the brewing district in the south of Kyoto. Fushimi sits on soft groundwater drawn from the Momoyama hills, and Tamanohikari uses that water through the whole process, from washing the rice to building the yeast starter. The flagship Tamanohikari junmai leans toward the rich and round rather than the light and dry, the kind of sake that fills the mouth with rice umami and finishes warm.

The brewery has kept pushing on the raw material. It worked with farmers in Okayama to bring back Omachi, an old, tall, hard-to-grow rice variety that had drifted close to extinction, and in 2022 it released two organic junmai ginjo under the GREEN series name, one made with Omachi alone and one with Yamada Nishiki alone. By the brewery's account those bottles were certified under Japan's JAS organic standard, reportedly the first alcoholic beverages in the country to earn it, though I have seen that "first" stated mainly through the brewery's own channels.

Key facts

• Founded 1673 by Nakaya Rokuzaemon in Wakayama (Kishu domain); said to be the only survivor of roughly twenty breweries that held the domain's license
• The name "Tamanohikari" comes from the family's devotion to Kumano's Hayatama shrine, not from branding
• Relocated to Fushimi, Kyoto after WWII; brews with soft groundwater from the Momoyama hills
• In 1964 returned to junmai-shu and is credited with leading the postwar revival of pure rice sake; has brewed only junmai since
• Junmai uses up to roughly 1.8x the rice of alcohol-added sake for the same volume, the cost behind the 1964 decision
• Helped revive the near-extinct Omachi rice variety with Okayama farmers
• Released two organic junmai ginjo (GREEN series) in 2022: one Omachi 100%, one Yamada Nishiki 100%; reported as Japan's first JAS-certified organic alcoholic beverages (per the brewery)