Kinmon Akita

Philosophy

"Akita-Fuji" is a brand that is handed down over generations until today from the original company. It was named after the second highest mountain in Tohoku situated between Akita and Yamagata, officially "Chokaisan", which was commonly called as Akita-Fuji on Akita side. Akita-Fuji has a special meaning to the people in and from Akita. This is because the mountain Akita-Fuji has traditionally been the object of worship where people believed in those days that it was the main source of fertility in the great rice plain of Akita.

Since the end of World War II up to sixties, rehabilitation from the war was hastened. Many people from Akita were working for coal mines in Hokkaido as permanent or seasonal migrants. Our "Akita-Fuji" became very popular among those Akita fellows in the field digging so-called 'black diamonds'.
Even before then, since Meiji period, many people from Akita had crossed Tsugaru channel for pioneering Hokkaido. Akita people were reputed to be hardworking and trustworthy workers. For example, those who stood out in flood-prevention works for the Ishikari River were called 'reliable laborers'. I wonder how much the name "Akita-Fuji" and its taste meant to them. Being away from home and working hard day and night, "Akita-Fuji" must have meant something truly irreplaceable. Our first president, along with wholesalers in Hokkaido, visited every single sake retailer in coal mine towns.

Now in our time, Kinmon Akita SAKE Brewery is widening and deepening the involvement with food traditions, by pairing our matured aged sake (koshu) with various locally produced food items of Hokkaido. Thinking of it a step further, sake-making is actually a quest for discovering an unvisited savor which goes beyond the evaluation of sake's taste alone. While carrying on the roots of Japanese sake, we would never stop searching for a break-through to an unknown sphere of savor by aged sake, a kind of sake containing 'umami' that no one else can imitate.