Otakijo

Toyonotsuru Shuzo, established in Otaki Town, Chiba Prefecture during the Tenmei era (1781-1789), produces Otakijo sake from a brewery complex whose Meiji-era wooden buildings are registered as Important Tangible Cultural Properties of Japan. The brand is named after the commanding Otaki Castle that overlooks the town, and the seventeenth-generation owner Toyohiko Tajima aims for a style that is 'clean and light yet layered with flavor,' producing expressions that range from junmai daiginjo to draft-stored original sake. The brewery sits within a historic castle town in the Boso Peninsula's inland hills.