Former trading-house employee revives a derelict brewery, taking a mountain village in Ehime to the world

On 30 May 2026, Kumakogen Brewery held its opening ceremony in Kumakogen, Ehime Prefecture. Ehime is on Shikoku in western Japan, and Kumakogen is a town in the prefecture’s mountains. The local brewery had closed more than ten years earlier, and no sake had been made in the town since. The building chosen for the new brewery is a former sake brewery more than 150 years old. It was brought back to life by Kyoichiro Kanbayashi, a former trading-house employee based in Tokyo who had no previous connection to the town.

An export plan that began with an empty brewery

After working at a trading house, Kanbayashi wanted to “spread the sake I love to the world” and founded a company, SAKEFRONTIER, in 2023. The trigger was learning that a vacant former brewery existed. His first plan was to “revive the brewery and export sake.” He found the building through an “akiya bank”, a scheme in which local authorities match vacant properties with people who want to use them, and he says he took to it at first sight when he went to see it. When he also spoke of his idea of letting overseas visitors experience sake making, the town promised its support. He is now looking at exports to Asia and other overseas markets.

Roho, a new drink that is “not sake”

The drink served at the opening was Roho. It is made with Shizukuhime, an Ehime sake rice grown in the town, and brewing began this spring. According to Kanbayashi, under Japan’s classification this drink is not sake (seishu) but falls under “other brewed alcoholic beverages”. Its main ingredients are rice, rice koji and water, and the brewing method is the same as for sake. The differences are that a small amount of germinated brown rice is added and that the aroma comes from cedar chips grown in the town. The aim is a flavour like that of sake brewed in wooden barrels. Two types are made: nigorizake, which keeps rice particles in the drink, and doburoku, which is finished without pressing the moromi. The result is said to be clean, crisp and free of off-flavours. Visitors to the opening described it as “refreshing and easy to drink” and “light yet full-bodied”.

Connecting a mountain village’s local sake with the world

Kanbayashi plans to move his home and work base to Kumakogen in earnest and to bring back the local sake culture that had died out. His goal is to restore liveliness to a town that once had many more people. He says he wants it to become a place where people from Japan and abroad gather for its local sake.

At present, there is no announced plan to ship to Europe. Even so, this story offers a clue to new developments among small Japanese producers. Drinks are appearing that build on sake-making methods and gain their character from additional ingredients and the aroma of wood. Such drinks may not carry the word “sake” on the label. When choosing imports, the quickest check is whether rice and rice koji appear in the ingredients list. Serve nigorizake and doburoku well chilled, and tilt the bottle slowly to blend in the sediment before pouring, so that you taste the rice’s sweetness and acidity together. A cedar-scented drink may also pair well with smoked dishes or food grilled over charcoal.