Kokken Brewery, founded in Minami-Aizu Town, Fukushima Prefecture in 1870, adopted its current brand name when a traveling monk bestowed the phrase meaning rights of an independent nation on the fledgling sake, and the name has defined the brewery's identity ever since. Master brewer Yoshihiro Sato of the Nanbu toji lineage has guided the label to nine gold medals at the National New Sake Appraisal, the highest total in Fukushima Prefecture. The brewery focuses exclusively on tokutei meisho-shu (premium classified sake) using carefully selected sake rice and pristine water from the mountains of southern Aizu.
