Kamotsuru

Kamotsuru Shuzo has been operating in Saijo, Hiroshima Prefecture, one of Japan's most storied sake-producing towns, for over 150 years, and the Kamotsuru brand name was first used by its founder Kimura in 1873. The brewery draws on soft water from the Kamo Mountains and polishes all its brewing rice in-house, using Hiroshima-grown varieties cultivated in higher-elevation fields north of Saijo. In 1921 Kamotsuru took first, second, and third place at the National Sake and Shochu Competition, and the brewery claims to be among the first in Japan to export sake to the United States, having done so as early as 1896.