Outside the south南九州以外
Licensed in almost every prefecture. Barely made outside the south.
32 bottles here · 18 producers · Shochu, Kome (rice)
Almost every prefecture in Japan is licensed to make shochu and most of them barely do. The bottles in this catalogue from outside Kyushu and Okinawa are worth understanding as exceptions rather than as a northern tradition, because each one exists for a specific reason.
Several are kasutori shochu from sake breweries: a brewery presses its sake, is left with lees, and distils them. That is why Yamaguchi, Niigata and Yamagata appear here at all. The spirit carries the aroma of the sake it came from. That's the point of it.
Some are korui shochu, the continuously distilled class. It's made industrially and isn't tied to any region. Mie is here partly for that reason: one of its two bottles is a korui, the other a cask-aged rice shochu, and both come from the same Yokkaichi company.
And a few are genuinely local. Shiso shochu from Hokkaido, made with red perilla from Shiranuka, is built on neutral base alcohol rather than being a honkaku shochu. It's the best known of its kind in Japan.
Producers here
- Nakano BC4 bottles · Official site
- Tatenokawa4 bottles · Official site
- Hakkaisan Brewery3 bottles · Official site
- Chiyomusubi Shuzo2 bottles · Official site
- Kiuchi Brewery2 bottles · Official site
- Miho Shurui Niigata Shisha2 bottles · Official site
- Miyazaki Honten2 bottles · Official site
- Naruto no Imoya2 bottles · Official site
- Nissin Shurui2 bottles · Official site
- Dassai1 bottle · Official site
- Fukumitsuya1 bottle
- Godo Shusei1 bottle · Official site
- Miyamoto Shuzoten1 bottle · Official site
- Noguchi Naohiko Sake Institute1 bottle
- Okabe1 bottle · Official site
- Ozaki Shuzo1 bottle · Official site
- Ozeki Corporation1 bottle · Official site
- Yahiko Shuzo1 bottle · Official site
A producer is linked only where a page on their own domain was read while researching one of their bottles. The rest have no link rather than a guessed one.
Others who distil here
The Japan Sake and Shochu Makers Association lists these as distilling here. We hold no bottle from any of them, so there is nothing to recommend and no tasting note to give. What follows is a record that they exist, with their own site where the association publishes one.
- Akita Homare Shuzo1944 · Official site
Brands: Chisui (Kasu)
- Aoki Shuzo1717 · Official site
Brands: Yukiotoko
- Arashiyama Shuzo1717
Brands: Shuyo (Kome)
- Goretsu Shuzo1819
Brands: Kanasago (Soba)
- Hamada1866 · Official site
Brands: Sonpin (Kome)
- Hiyama Shuzo1884 · Official site
Brands: Senhime
- Iseman1949 · Official site
Brands: Okagesama (Kome)
- Kikunoka Shuzo1882 · Official site
Brands: Kosai (Kome)
- Kikusui Shuzo1881 · Official site
Brands: Setsugoro Sakekasu Shochu
- King Jozo1900 · Official site
Brands: Rokujo no Sizuku
- Kizakura Tanba Kojo1925 · Official site
Brands: HibiYuyu
- Meiri ShuruiOfficial site
Brands: Manyuki (Imo)
- Narutokintoki Joryujo
Brands: Shochu (Imo)
- Nishioka Honten1782 · Official site
- oenon group Akitaken Hakko Kogyo1945 · Official site
Brands: Black Stone
- Sakai Shuzo1871 · Official site
Brands: Nishikigawa (Kasu)
- Sapporo Shusei Kogyo1933 · Official site
Brands: Kitasato (Imo)
- Takara Shuzo Shirakabekura1842 · Official site
Brands: Ikkomon (Imo)
- Tenshin1959 · Official site
Brands: Shochu (Mugi)
