Founded in 1793 in Narai-juku, a post town on the historic Nakasendo road, Suginomori Brewery lay dormant for nearly a decade from 2012. The site was set to become lodging and give up brewing altogether — until the conviction that the flame of sake brewing, a traditional Japanese culture, must not be allowed to go out brought the business back to life. Today it stands as a symbol of Narai-juku, a town that now draws visitors from around the world. At roughly 940 metres it is the highest-altitude sake brewery in Japan, and its brewing floor can be seen through glass from the restaurant of the neighbouring old-townhouse hotel BYAKU Narai. Rather than well water, it draws mountain spring water rising near the watershed that divides the Shinano and Kiso rivers.

Brewing runs through all four seasons here, and visitors can feel that rhythm first-hand. Under toji Masayuki Irie the brewery works at micro scale, with a single brewmaster overseeing every stage so that each bottle is made deliberately. Its rice comes from Azumino in Nagano — including Sankei-nishiki, a new Nagano sake rice registered only in 2020 and the variety behind narai sankei. The brewery also reaches beyond the cellar: a mobile sales vehicle fitted with a sake server, an original apparel line, a standing bar and workspace on site. Tradition and invention together, under a theme it calls 'beyond brewing'.