Shichiken traces its origins to 1750, when Ibei Kitahara founded the brewery in Hakushu along the Koshu Kaido highway, drawn by the purity of the local water flowing from the Southern Alps. The sake name was bestowed in 1835 when the lord of Takato Castle gifted the brewery a carved panel depicting the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove, and the main building was later used as a rest stop by the Meiji Emperor in 1880 and has been designated a national heritage site. Shichiken pioneered bottle-refermented sparkling sake in Japan with its Yama no Kasumi release in 2015, produced using méthode champenoise techniques developed with regional winery partners.
