澄川酒造場Sumikawa Jozo

Takafumi Sumikawa was shoveling mud out of his own brewery when the championship was announced. The fourth-generation brewer, born in Hagi City in 1973, had watched a late-July 2013 landslide bury the ground floor of Sumikawa Brewery, carry off more than 10,000 stored bottles, and wreck the steamers and cooling gear. The family had talked about closing. Then, with the first floor still not cleared, word came that Toyo Bijin had taken the Grand Prix at the SAKE COMPETITION in October 2014. Two things were true at once: the kura was a construction site, and the sake it had made was being called among the best in Japan. The bottles that won were already sold and drunk. The room that produced them no longer existed.

The name Toyo Bijin, "Eastern Beauty," goes back to the founder, who chose it in memory of his late wife when the family started brewing in 1921. They had been rice wholesalers until then; the move into sake came through taking over a relative's kura. Takafumi entered the family business after studying at Tokyo University of Agriculture, then trained under Akitsuna Takagi at Takagi Shuzo in Yamagata, the brewery behind Juyondai. That apprenticeship showed him what precision at small scale could do.

More than 1,500 people turned up to help clean and rebuild: retailers, sake professionals, fans who had been drinking the sake for years. A new three-story facility, traditional methods alongside modern equipment, was finished in 2014. Production grew roughly tenfold under Takafumi's leadership. In 2016, Toyo Bijin Junmai Daiginjo Ichibanmatoi was poured at the Japan-Russia summit in Nagato City, reportedly to President Putin's praise.

The brewery Sumikawa rebuilt doesn't look much like the one the landslide buried. The sake it makes does.

Key facts

• Founded 1921 in Hagi City, Yamaguchi Prefecture by the Sumikawa family, who had been rice wholesalers; name Toyo Bijin (東洋美人, "Eastern Beauty") chosen by the founder in memory of his late wife
• Fourth-generation brewer Takafumi Sumikawa (b. 1973) trained at Tokyo University of Agriculture and under Akitsuna Takagi (Takagi Shuzo, Yamagata)
• July 2013: severe flooding and landslide destroyed the brewery's first floor and over 10,000 stored bottles; closure was considered
• October 2014: bottles brewed before the 2013 flood won the Grand Prix at the SAKE COMPETITION (Free Style under ¥5,000 category)
• Recovery involved over 1,500 volunteers; rebuilt as a new three-story facility in 2014
• 2016: Toyo Bijin Junmai Daiginjo Ichibanmatoi served at the Japan-Russia summit in Nagato City
• Production grew approximately tenfold under Takafumi Sumikawa's leadership; current output approximately 2,500 koku