Tsukasabotan Brewing Company

Tsukasa Botan Sake Brewery is located in Sagawa Town, Takaoka District, Kochi Prefecture. It boasts the longest history among the sake breweries in Kochi, and was founded in 1603 (Keicho 8), the year the Edo shogunate was established. Its predecessor is said to have been an “Ozakaya” in charge of sake brewing within a merchant family that served Shigeyoshi Fukao Izumi no kami, the chief retainer of Kazutoyo Yamauchi, who was given 240,000 koku of Tosa rice by Ieyasu Tokugawa. In 1918 (Taisho 7), the current brewery was established as a result of the merger of surrounding sake breweries. Mitsuaki Tanaka, a Meiji Restoration patriot from Sagawa who loved drinking this sake, named it “Tsukasa Botan” with the meaning that “peony is the king of hundreds of flowers, and it is the peony of all peonies.” Ta. In order to make sake that takes advantage of the soft spring water of the Niyodo River system, the current company president’s great-grandfather, Genjuro Takemura, traveled across the country and came across the “soft water brewing method.” Kin Kawanishi, the leading master brewer of Hiroshima. When Mr. Hyoe was invited, his superior techniques immediately improved the quality of the sake, winning him numerous awards. This technique is still firmly passed down to this day.