Saijo Sake School to Reopen, Training the Next Keepers of a UNESCO-Listed Craft

Japan’s traditional sake brewing is inscribed on UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list. But inscription alone will not keep a culture alive unless people are trained to carry the craft forward. In Hiroshima Prefecture, a plan has begun to revive a brewery school devoted solely to training new brewers. The Hiroshima broadcaster RCC (Chugoku Broadcasting) reported it in early September.

A leader of the toji heads to Saijo, sake country

At the centre of the plan is Tatsuya Ishikawa, president of the Japan Sake Brewing Toji Association Federation. A toji is the master brewer who directs every stage of production in a brewery, and the federation is the national body that brings together toji guilds from across the country. Ishikawa has returned to Higashihiroshima in Hiroshima Prefecture and, at the time of the report, was preparing to revive the Saijo Sake School in autumn 2026, based at Fukubijin Shuzo in the city. The Saijo district of Higashihiroshima lies about 30 minutes by train east of Hiroshima city and is known as one of Japan’s leading sake-producing areas, home to a cluster of breweries.

Six months living at the brewery

What sets the new school apart is that participants will stay at the brewery for about six months. Sake brewing takes place mainly from autumn to spring, and the work of steaming rice, cultivating koji and watching over fermentation continues day and night. The aim is to build, through daily work, the kind of feel that textbooks cannot convey. Ishikawa says he wants to create “a brewery specialised in training people”, making the sending out of the next generation of brewers its first purpose, ahead of making and selling sake.

In Hiroshima city, a talk event where people can enjoy music while getting to know sake has also been held, one of a growing number of efforts to make the passing on of tradition feel closer to younger generations.

How to enjoy it in Europe

It will still be several years before sake made by brewers trained at this school reaches Europe. Even so, there are ways to enjoy the idea now. At shops and restaurants that stock Hiroshima sake, check whether the label or description gives the brewery’s location and the toji’s name. Lining up two or three bottles from breweries in the same region makes each brewer’s character easier to see. Paying attention to who made it, where, and how they learned is one way of enjoying a craft that UNESCO has recognised.