Sanyotsuru takes its name from a legend of cranes landing in the pine forests of the Sanyo Road, and has been brewing in Higashi-Hiroshima's Saijo district since 1912. Saijo is counted among Japan's three great sake-producing regions alongside Nada and Fushimi, and Sanyotsuru draws on the district's characteristic soft water to produce sake in which the five flavors of sweetness, acidity, pungency, bitterness, and astringency are described as blending into a unified whole.
