Kariho Brewery was established in 1913 in Akita Prefecture when Ito Kyonosuke took over a neighboring kura, spinning off from the Dewatsuru lineage that the Ito family had begun in 1865. The brand name Kariho references a waka poem by Emperor Tenchi, honoring the rice farmers who cultivate the fields. Kariho's defining technique is the yamahai fermentation method, with mash kept fermenting at low temperature for up to 60 days and pressed using traditional sakafune wooden pressing vessels, of which the brewery maintains six, a rarity in modern Japan.
