SAITAMA

Matsuzaki Nakafuku

Craft gin made in the forest of Kawagoe

TOGEDAMA craft gin is locally made with love by a family business that has been based in the Saitama forest since the Meiji period.

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Saitama’s first craft gin distillery

The Matsuzaki family liquor store has been serving customers since 1887, surrounded by the lush, green woodlands of Kawagoe in Saitama, northwest of Tokyo. Today, the shop is still imbued with the atmosphere of the Showa era, and continues to sell famous brands of sake from all over Japan. Representing the current generation of the company’s leadership, Yudai Matsuzaki decided to start making gin in order to preserve the forest on their family land.

Next to the liquor shop is Matsuzaki’s Musashino Distillery, the first craft gin distillery in Saitama, housed in an old renovated wooden warehouse that was built in the early 20th century. Matsuzaki has been producing TOGEDAMA, its signature craft gin, since 2019, focusing on botanicals native to Japan and the local area in particular. To produce the gin, groundwater is pumped from a newly dug well and pumped using a unique extraction method.

Preserving the family forest

Although transforming the forest to support gin production is a long and difficult process, Matsuzaki hopes that within a decade, their own farm will provide all of the botanicals needed to produce their craft gin, including juniper berries, wild tea leaves, yuzu citrus, and Japanese sansho pepper. The company also supports local schools by providing fertilizer made from by-products of their gin production to a farm that grows produce for local preschool lunches.