Yamane Shuzo
Making craft sake to preserve Japan’s endemic dormouse in Hanno city, Saitama
Tour a brewery where the focus is on conserving the surrounding area’s natural ecology and biodiversity.
A brewery named after a mouse
Yamane Shuzo’s founder Fukunari Wakabayashi might say that brewing sake is incidental to his true mission: to save Hanno’s native yamane. The brewery’s namesake is a Japanese dormouse that sleeps half the day and hibernates half the year. This nocturnal, forest-dwelling creature is both a living fossil (surviving as a species for over 5 million years) and a designated National Natural Treasure, while its habitat becomes increasingly threatened by human activity.
In addition to crafting sake using local materials and methods, Yamane Shuzo offers eco-tours of the surrounding area, along with overnight stays and sake workshops to give visitors a fully immersive experience of Hanno’s natural environment. You can learn even more at the brewery’s own Research Center for Biodiversity and Environmental Ecology, which monitors soil and water quality and identifies and classifies micro-organisms, among other activities.
Beyond traditional sake, hyperlocally made in Hanno
Yamane Shuzo’s artisanal wooden barrels used for brewing are made of Nishikawa-zai lumber produced in Hanno, as are all the associated tools and other materials, including steamers, warming barrels and koji trays. Saitama varieties of rice are cultivated using a method of organic permaculture that respects the natural harmony with inherited wisdom for sustainable production, and by extension sustainable living. The brewery eventually aims to produce sake using rice that is free from any pesticides, fertilizers, and herbicides. Yamane’s small batch craft sake bottles are rarely available for sale, so be sure to drink your fill while you’re there.
Access to Yamane Shuzo
From Tokyo, take the Seibu Ikebukuro Line Limited Express from Ikebukuro to Hanno Station (40 minutes), then take the bus bound for Yunosawa along the Iruma River to Chanai (30 minutes), which stops right in front of Yamane Shuzo.
Contact
Email: yamaneshuzo@gmail.com
Business hours
11:00 - 16:00
Business Days: Irregular (Business days will be announced on the Yamane Brewery website and Twitter as soon as they are determined.)
WEB site
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This picturesque location nestled in the mountains near Hanno is the only place in eastern Japan where Buddhism and Shinto beliefs are still fused together.
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