Shiga brewery that stopped making sake returns with new Ko no Homare

Shiga Prefecture lies just east of Kyoto and is home to Lake Biwa, Japan’s largest lake. In Takatsuki-cho, in the city of Nagahama in the north of the prefecture, the brewery Yamaoka Shuzo has started making sake again after once giving it up. In January 2026 it released the first new sake made under its new management, “Ko no Homare Junmai Ginjo”. At one point the brewery was close to shutting down. It was saved by someone who was neither from the brewing family nor a sake-making specialist, but who had once dealt with the brewery as a company employee.

Crisis at a brewery with 150 years of history

Yamaoka Shuzo was founded in 1873. It has more than 150 years of history, but its brewers were getting older, and in 2018 it temporarily stopped making its own sake. The fourth-generation head, Jinzo Yamaoka (89), had no successor and is said to have been considering closing the brewery.

In Japan today, small sake breweries struggling to find successors has become a major problem. Many breweries are family-run, and if the next generation does not take over, brands with long histories simply disappear. Yamaoka Shuzo was one of the breweries heading down that path.

A new set-up under a former trading partner

The business was taken over by Ken Ibuki (57) and others. While working as a company employee, Ibuki traded products with Yamaoka Shuzo as part of the job. So someone from outside the industry decided to take over the brewery to protect the value they had come to see in it through those business dealings. Brewing under the new set-up began three years ago, and work to rebuild the business, which had shrunk, is under way.

In Japan, too, more and more breweries are being taken over by people outside the family or from other industries. Brewers who come from outside sometimes make sakes that ignore the old conventions, and they are attracting attention for bringing fresh energy to the industry.

An easy-drinking junmai ginjo made from local rice

The new “Ko no Homare Junmai Ginjo” uses sake rice grown in Mita-cho, also in Nagahama. “Junmai ginjo” means sake made only from rice, rice koji and water, with no added brewer’s alcohol. The rice is polished from the outside in and fermented slowly at low temperatures. Sakes of this kind tend to have aromas that suggest fruit or flowers.

This sake, too, stands out for its vibrant aroma and sweetness. Its alcohol content has also been kept lower so that it is easy to drink even for people who are not used to sake.

How to enjoy it in Europe

There is currently no information that Ko no Homare is available in Europe. Still, this brewery’s story offers a useful way of thinking about how to choose a sake. If the label says “Junmai Ginjo”, that is a sign of an aromatic style. Bottles with a lower alcohol content suit people trying sake for the first time and also work well as an aperitif. Aromatic sakes like this open up when lightly chilled and poured into a wine glass. They also go easily with fruit-based starters and light fish dishes. Another enjoyable way to see how sake is changing today is to ask at a sake shop for brands from “new brewers who have taken over a brewery”.