Kumpai Shuzo stands along a quiet stretch of the Kyu-Tokaido Road, across the Abe River in an old part of Shizuoka City. Run by father-and-son team Seiji and Hidetoshi Ichikawa, the brewery has remained in the same location since the family's ancestors began making sake in the Edo Period.
Prior to 1937, the brewery had represented a small sake empire — the result of a merger that subsumed four producers in the area — and brewed quantities of futsū-shu (table sake) for mass consumption under a different name. Today, the focus at Kumpai Shuzo is on tiny batches of premium brews, painstakingly made by hand. Ever since the previous tōji (master brewer) left the company in 1996, Seiji and Hidetoshi Ishikawa have been doing everything themselves.
During the brewing season, their workday begins at 6 a.m. The Ishikawas keep to a tight schedule throughout the morning and take turns overseeing various stages of production. "When one of us is tending to the fermenting mash, the other starts the next batch," Seiji explains. The afternoons are spent attending to administrative matters, such as taking orders, making deliveries and working in the sake shop at the front of the brewery. A few years ago, Hidetoshi even took on the job of designing the labels, which father and son attach to the sake bottles with the help of other family members.