Rui Yoshida and Fukumitsuya: a junmai sake designed with a taste sensor

On 6 October 2026, Mitsubishi Shokuhin, a major Japanese food wholesaler, launched Junmai-shu Kagatobi Kezayaka (720 ml), the fifth product in its “Rui Yoshida Recommended Local Sake Series”. It is sold mainly in supermarkets across Japan. The sake was brewed by Fukumitsuya Co., Ltd., a brewery in Ishikawa Prefecture in the Hokuriku region on the Sea of Japan side of Honshu. The way it was made is distinctive. The flavour imagined by a cultural figure familiar from television and well known for his love of sake was first translated into figures by a machine, and a long-established brewery then used those figures as a guide for brewing.

Turning “the sake I want to drink” into numbers

Rui Yoshida was born in Kochi Prefecture and calls himself a “tavern poet”; he is an illustrator and writer. He is widely known for the television programme Rui Yoshida’s Sakaba Horoki (BS-TBS), in which he drinks his way through everyday taverns across Japan. For this product, Mikaori Senryaku Kenkyujo Co., Ltd., a company specialising in taste analysis, used a taste sensor to analyse the flavour Yoshida had in mind for sake fans. Fukumitsuya was then asked to brew on the basis of the results. The aim was a “banshaku-shu”, a sake to enjoy at home with the evening meal every day. It is said to have been finished with a flavour that brings out the best in the dinner table.

“Kagatobi” and a name born from a haiku

Kagatobi is Fukumitsuya’s flagship brand, which prizes a refined “iki” (stylish elegance) and a clean finish that slips away crisply. This sake is a junmai-shu. Junmai-shu is a category of sake made only from rice, rice koji and water, with no added brewer’s alcohol. According to Mitsubishi Shokuhin, a rich aroma and the full umami of the rice blend together to give a clear, clean impression. The product name comes from a haiku Yoshida wrote himself: “Hashigo tate tobi no kezayaka hatsumisora”. “Kezayaka” is an old word meaning “standing out sharply”, with a stronger ring than the ordinary “azayaka” (vivid). Yoshida also wrote the characters on the label himself.

A series entering its fifth year

The series began in October 2021. It started with two bottles, one from Saura, which makes Urakasumi in Miyagi Prefecture, and one from Tsukasabotan Shuzo in Kochi Prefecture. In 2022 Dewazakura Shuzo of Yamagata Prefecture and Ichinokura of Miyagi Prefecture joined. Kagatobi is the fifth. To mark the fifth year, the labels of the existing four products will also be refreshed in stages. The suggested retail price is 1,480 yen (excluding tax), a price range that is easy to pick up as an everyday sake.

This Kezayaka is a product for supermarkets in Japan, so finding the same bottle in Europe is likely to be difficult. What deserves attention is rather that sake is now sometimes designed using data and not only intuition, and that the standard brand of a well-known brewery is trying a new expression at an everyday price. If you come across Fukumitsuya’s Kagatobi junmai-shu in a sake specialist shop, try paying attention to the balance of “richness of aroma”, “umami of the rice” and “crispness of the finish”. Some also say the umami is easier to perceive when the sake is not over-chilled, but served at room temperature or lukewarm. As for food, everyday dinner dishes such as grilled fish or simmered dishes should suit it well.