車多酒造Shata Shuzo

Nakasaburo became head brewer at Shata Shuzo in 1971 and did not put down the job until April 2024. Fifty-three years is most of a working life spent in one cold room, and over that half-century he and the seventh-generation owner, Toshiro Shata, built a single idea into the brewery's whole identity: yamahai. The trade later counted him among the four great Noto toji and the government named him a Contemporary Master Craftsman. The brewery now sells a top-grade daiginjo with his name on the label, Nakasaburo.

What he revived was the slow way. Yamahai lets wild lactic-acid bacteria sour the starter mash on their own, over weeks, instead of dosing it with lactic acid the way fast modern brewing does. By the 1960s almost nobody bothered. It is more work, less predictable, and prone to off-flavors if you misread it. Toshiro Shata went looking for it anyway in the late Showa years, brought in Nakasaburo, a Noto toji, and the two of them rebuilt the method into something that became the house style. Most of what Shata Shuzo makes today still starts that way.

The brewery sits in Hakusan, Ishikawa, on the Kaga plain below the mountain the city is named for, and has since 1823. The founder, Shata Taemon, had traveled the country and could not forget the sake he drank in Nada; he came home to brew his own. The family name itself records the place. "Shata" points to the waterwheels (sha) that the Tedori river system once turned in number (ta) to polish rice. The brewery still mills all of its rice in-house. The water is spring water off Mount Haku.

The flagship name comes from the woods. Old tellings say the brewery stood in forest thick enough that the rustle of leaves sounded like a tengu, the long-nosed mountain spirit, dancing after a few cups of something good. Tengumai. The sake leans into acidity and umami rather than the clean floral profile that wins easy fans; it reads full, a little wild, and tends to gain rather than fade with a few years in the bottle. That is the yamahai character, and it suits the rich food of the Kanazawa region it grew up next to.

Tengumai Yamahai Junmai has been a steady medalist at the International Wine Challenge in London, taking the Junmai Trophy in 2011. Kazunari Shata, the eighth generation, runs the brewery now. When Nakasaburo finally retired, the line he had spent fifty-three years defending did not stop. It was the point of the whole exercise.

Key facts

• Founded 1823 (Bunsei 6) by Shata Taemon in Hakusan, Ishikawa Prefecture, on the Kaga plain below Mount Haku
• Flagship brands: Tengumai (天狗舞) and Gorin (五凛); brewing water is spring water from Mount Haku (Hakusan)
• Surname "Shata" (車多) records the waterwheels of the Tedori river system once used to polish rice; the brewery still mills all rice in-house
• Toji Nakasaburo (中三郎) served as head brewer from 1971 to April 2024, 53 years; counted among the four great Noto toji and named a Contemporary Master Craftsman
• 7th-generation owner Toshiro Shata revived the yamahai starter method in the late Showa era; it remains the house style for most of the brewery's output
• Name origin: legend of a tengu dancing after drinking the sake in the forest that surrounded the brewery
• Tengumai sits within the GI Hakusan geographical indication for Hakusan-region sake
• Tengumai Yamahai Junmai is a repeat IWC medalist, with the Junmai Trophy in 2011
• 8th-generation Kazunari Shata leads the brewery today