About
Second whisky distillery on Shikoku island, located in Yawatahama City, Ehime Prefecture. Sake brewery since the Edo period, obtained whiskey production license in 2023. Also produces sake, liqueurs, shochu, and AWA GIN (IWSC Silver medal winner). Sake 'Hisago Taikou' has won 19 gold medals at the National New Sake Competition.
Production Details
The Ume Bijin Shuzo Tale
In the harbor city of Yawatahama, where the Seto Inland Sea laps against Shikoku's western shore, an ancient sake brewery made a quiet declaration in 2023. Ume Bijin Shuzo, whose roots stretch back to the Edo period, obtained Japan's newest whisky production license, becoming only the second distillery on an island where tradition moves like the tides—slowly, deliberately, with purpose.
The decision carried the weight of centuries. For generations, the brewery had perfected the art of sake, their 'Hisago Taikou' earning nineteen gold medals at the National New Sake Competition. They understood fermentation as a conversation between intention and time, between human craft and natural forces. Whisky would be a new dialect in a familiar language.
Thirty meters beneath their feet, an underground aquifer holds the foundation of their craft. The well water rises through limestone and ancient sediment, carrying the mineral memory of Shikoku's mountains. In Japan, water is never merely an ingredient—it is the silent partner that shapes every drop, the invisible hand that guides transformation from grain to spirit.
The transition from sake to whisky reflects something essentially Japanese: the ability to honor foreign traditions while making them unmistakably their own. Scottish techniques filtered through centuries of Japanese brewing wisdom, where precision serves not efficiency but harmony. Here, monozukuri—the art of making things with pride and dedication—transforms Highland methods into something that could only emerge from this particular place, this specific water, these practiced hands.
Their success with AWA GIN, which earned silver at the International Wine and Spirit Competition, suggests an understanding of how local ingredients speak when given proper voice. The same intuition that guided their award-winning sake now turns toward whisky, where patience measured in years rather than months will test their commitment to craft.
In Yawatahama, where fishing boats return with the evening tide and mountains frame the horizon, Ume Bijin Shuzo begins its whisky journey. The stills are new, but the wisdom is old. The spirit will be Japanese, but the wait—like all true whisky—belongs to time itself.