About the brewery: Tonoike Shuzoten was created by a family from a group of workers coming from the remote locality of Shiga, the "Oomi Shonin". Their appearance goes back to 1590, date on which Hideyoshi Toyotomi sends a Daïmyo of the name of Ujisato Gamo since Oomi, towards Fukushima. He is accompanied by many artists, men of science, shokunin, and merchants. The mission entrusted to them by Hideyoshi Toyotomi is to make the West of Japan more active by creating commercial links with the East. Over time, some of the members of this group established residence in Tochigi and began to make sake. Thus, a new style was born in the region, based on the techniques of Oomi savants and surrounded by secrets known only by merchants. The Tonoike family, from this group of Oomi Shonin, founded the original Tonoike Sogoro Shoten kura. But Itsugoro Tonoike directed it only in his youth, with his brother, because he decided in 1937 to settle in the nearby town of Mashikoe to brew alone, within his own unit, Tonoike Shuzoten.

Tasting advice: the brewer recommends a temperature of 15°C, but it is also pleasantly fresh, on simple preparations, raw or little baked. On desserts, with a lemon pie.