Rising from the fire: Mizutani Shuzo begins building a new brewery

A burnt-out brewery and the yeast that was saved

Aichi Prefecture lies roughly halfway between Tokyo and Osaka, and Aisai, where Mizutani Shuzo is based, sits to the west of Nagoya. The brewery is said to have been founded in the late Edo period, and one of its best-known brands, “Senpyo”, has long been highly regarded. Since 1998, the fifth-generation owner, Masao Mizutani, had run the brewery while also serving as its toji (head brewer), making the sake single-handedly.

A fire broke out on the afternoon of 9 May 2024, and the single-storey wooden brewery was almost entirely destroyed, apart from a few parts. No one was injured, but the current president, Yutaka Tatematsu, reportedly considered closing the brewery for a time. The main reason it was able to start again was that the yeast used for brewing had been stored outside the brewery and so escaped the flames. Yeast is the microorganism that shapes a sake’s aroma and flavour. A building can be rebuilt, but without its yeast it would be hard to carry on the brewery’s taste.

Two years of brewing at other breweries

About six months after the fire, Mizutani Shuzo resumed brewing with the help of other sake breweries in Aichi. According to the trade outlet SAKE Street, it brewed jointly with support from breweries in the prefecture such as Gikyo, Gazan and Oku, and in spring 2025 its “Chisane” brand was being pressed at Yamazaki Goshi Kaisha in Nishio.

Besides encouragement from local residents and fellow brewers in the prefecture, a major source of support was Miwa Goto (28), a former member of the Meijo University student club “Nihonshu Kenkyukai” (Sake Research Society), who aims to become a toji. A crowdfunding campaign for the rebuilding raised about 24 million yen, exceeding its target.

A two-storey brewery built for efficiency

On 4 September 2026, a jichinsai (a Shinto ritual to purify the land before construction) was held for the new brewery. The new building will have two storeys and is due to be completed in April 2027. The tanks for the moromi (the fermenting mash of rice, koji, water and yeast) will be temperature-controlled models, lined up on the ground floor. Steamed rice will be loaded from the first floor, so the heavy work of climbing up to the tanks to add the rice should be reduced. The layout inside the brewery has also been designed so that the process follows the flow of the work. President Tatematsu said that the day was not the finish line but the starting point for continuing to deliver good sake for five or ten years to come. Goto plans to focus on sales and widen the brewery’s outlets.

You may not often come across this brewery’s sake in Europe yet. What is worth noting are the brand names “Senpyo” and “Chisane”. The sake made between 2024 and 2026 can also be seen as a record of a transitional period, brewed using other breweries’ equipment. Tasting it alongside sake made once the new brewery is up and running might show how the flavour changes with different equipment, even with the same yeast and the same brewers. If you visit a specialist shop that stocks it, ask when and where the bottle was made. The story behind a single bottle may deepen your appreciation of its taste.