A barrel sauna steamed with shochu aromas: Kuro Kirishima's sauna

A sauna wrapped in a shochu brand

On 26 September 2026, the sauna facility “SEKINOO POOL SAUNA in Snow Peak MIYAKONOJO” had its grand opening at Sekinoo Park Pool in Miyakonojo, Miyazaki Prefecture, in southern Kyushu. The site lies within Snow Peak Miyakonojo Camp Field, a campsite run by the outdoor brand Snow Peak. The sauna equipment was supplied by Libertyship Co., Ltd., a sauna company based in Miyazaki City. With the cooperation of Kirishima Shuzo, a shochu maker headquartered in Miyakonojo, the outer tent of the barrel-shaped sauna carries the logo and design of its shochu brand “Kuro Kirishima”. The exterior is black and gold. Shochu is a Japanese distilled spirit made from ingredients such as rice, barley and sweet potato, and southern Kyushu, including Miyazaki Prefecture, is known as a major production area.

Choose a brand and enjoy its aroma: “shochu löyly”

Löyly means throwing water onto heated sauna stones in a Finnish-style sauna to create steam. At this facility, guests choose one of several Kirishima Shuzo shochu brands at reception, pour it into a small bottle and take it into the sauna room (free of charge). The aroma that rises when it is poured onto the stones differs from brand to brand, so there is reportedly the pleasure of trying a different one on each visit. The operators explain that this is meant to be enjoyed for its aroma, not for drinking. They say they have confirmed that the shochu used for löyly is diluted with water and so does not catch fire, and that only a very small amount of alcohol enters the body. They also ask people who dislike alcohol or are feeling unwell to refrain from using it.

Local wood, local water and a local drink

The sauna room is lined with Miyazaki-grown cedar, and the cold plunge and pool use natural water from Sekinoo, which wells up at the foot of the Kirishima mountain range. The aim is also to turn a pool that used to open only in summer into a place that can be used all year round. Libertyship’s representative director, Mr Agematsu, describes it as an experience made only from what this land has to offer: Miyazaki cedar, Sekinoo spring water and the Kirishima shochu chosen that day. He also says the Kuro Kirishima-designed sauna was possible precisely because they teamed up with a local shochu distillery.

For readers in the Netherlands, Germany and the Nordic countries, where sauna culture is well established, this attempt to focus on the aroma of a distilled spirit may be one way into shochu. When looking for shochu at Japanese food shops or specialist retailers, it is worth checking the ingredient on the label (sweet potato, barley or rice). Sweet potato shochu in particular has a distinct aroma from its raw material. It is also said that the way the aroma comes across changes with the way it is drunk.