Born in Okawa City, Fukuoka Prefecture in 1922, Wakanami Sake Brewery takes its name from the Chikugo River that runs nearby, with 'waka' meaning young and 'nami' meaning wave, expressing the brewery's concept of 'a wave of taste and an undertow of aftertaste.' Beginning in 2010, the fourth-generation owner launched a major overhaul of the brewery's operations, bringing in standards of cleanliness and quality control described as exceeding those of most Japanese sake breweries. Wakanami is led by the only female brewer in Fukuoka Prefecture, and only sake cleared by two in-house certified sake evaluators reaches the market.
