Komono Town, where the sake of Hayakawa Brewery is nurtured
Komono Town, located at the foot of the Suzuka Mountains, is blessed with a rich, natural environment.
The clear streams of the Suzuka Mountains and the rice harvested in the spacious farmlands are indispensable in our sake brewing.
Sake is essentially a very simple drink.
And due to its simplicity, completely different flavors are generated depending on the nature of the water and rice used as base ingredients.
We bring you the one-of-a-kind flavor of Hayakawa Brewery, created by the unique, natural environment of Komono Town.
Brewing water – a pure blessing cleansed by granite
Sake is said to be 80% water, which is why water is so important to sake.
Brewing requires roughly ten times more water than the volume of rice for fermentation, so it is no exaggeration to say that the quality of the water directly affects the quality of the sake.
The land surrounding Komono Town contains so much granite that the town has been called “stone village.” Stone mined in Komono Town (known as Ise Gorota stone) is said have purifying effects due to its negative ion emissions.
Subsoil water from Mt. Shakagatake is naturally filtered through this granite over a long period of time, becoming very high-quality water.
We use no tap water whatsoever in brewing. The soft, sweet taste of our sake comes from this soft water.
Brewer’s rice – a blessing from the fertile soil
As with water, the variety of the brewer’s rice used and the environment in which it is grown have a major impact on the flavor of sake.
As expressed in the saying “the right crop on the right land,” each variety of rice has an environment in which it grows best.
At Hayakawa Brewery, we strive to express the charms of the rice by making use of rice from the growing area best suited for that variety.
Rice cultivation has also flourished in Komono Town thanks to the region’s abundant water resources, and we use Kaminoho, a rice variety independently developed in Mie Prefecture and grown under contract in the nearby Tabika area.
In cooperation with the farmers, we aim to brew sake that can be enjoyed with peace of mind and that gives a sense of the people involved.
Komono Town, nestled within a blessed environment rich in nature
Komono Town, home to roughly 40,000 people, is located in north-central Mie Prefecture, where the Suzuka Mountains gracefully rise along the border between the prefectures of Mie and Shiga.
The Suzuka Mountains, which spread out in front of the brewery’s storehouse, change appearance in each of the four seasons.
In winter, the area experiences large differences in temperature due to the strong, cold winds blowing down from the mountains, making the land perfect for rice cultivation.
Many rivers also originate in the Suzuka Mountains, so the region is rich in groundwater.
This rich abundance of water is an indispensable resource in rice cultivation and sake brewing.
This blessed environment could be considered the ideal location for sake brewing.
Our sake brewing philosophy
Farmers throughout the country imbue their hearts and feelings into the rice they painstakingly cultivate over long periods of time, and we believe that it is important for brewers to express these sentiments through the sake they brew.
We brew all of our sake without added alcohol or sugar in order to preserve the original delicious flavor of the rice.
In addition, in order to enhance the mellowness and gentleness of the sake, which are the themes of our sake, we extract the undiluted sake from the fermenting mash by putting it in bags and piling up them to drip out naturally without applying external pressure.
We strive to convey the heartfelt wishes of our brewery by maximizing the features of each variety of brewer’s rice and conducting high-quality brewing with a focus on carefully maintaining the overall balance of the sake.
Our history
The brewery was founded in 1915.
At the time, the brewery was located in the Amakasuga area of Yokkaichi City, Mie Prefecture. However, the quality of the local water changed due to damage caused by the Isewan Typhoon, a record-breaking storm that struck Japan in 1959, so we relocated to Komono Town in 1977 in search of higher-quality water.
Twenty-five years ago, the brewery instituted a system in which the same person occupies the roles of both owner and chief brewer, and in 2009, Toshihito Hayakawa, the fourth generation of the Hayakawa family to run the brewery, was appointed to the position of chief brewer to coincide with the launch of TABIKA.
We continue to actively invest in our facilities and equipment with the quality of our sake as our number one priority.
Overview
- Company name
- Hayakawa Brewery & Co.
- Founded
- 1915
- Representative /
Chief brewer - Toshihito Hayakawa
- Location
- 468 Kojima, Komono Town, Mie District, Mie Prefecture, 510-1323
- TEL
- +81-59-396-2088
- FAX
- +81-59-396-2338
