About The Brewery

Uda City is located in the cedar tree-covered mountains of Nara Prefecture. This picturesque village inspired Japan’s earliest poets, dating back to the late 9th Century, and has been home to Kubo Honke Brewery since the earliest days of the Edo period. Today, the brewery and town remain essentially unchanged. Nara’s contributions to sake development are profoundly significant. As Japan's ancient capital and spiritual center, Nara was home to countless Buddhist temples; over the centuries, temple monks invented critical innovations such as milling rice, koji development, staged brewing, and pasteurization that remain fundamental to sake production today. 

Based on the idea that good sake is born from good koji, Kubo Honke Brewery’s koji room is divided in half so that koji temperature and humidity can be controlled separately. Their koji, described as “like crunchy quince sugar,” produces a dry, crisp sake with a pleasant, clean aftertaste.  

As owner Junpei Kubo says, “Natural fermentation of  ‘koji and yeast microorganisms’ is the secret to delicious sake.”