Hara Shuzo

Koshinohomare translates to “Pride of Niigata,” and has been in operation for 210 years as of this writing. Their location on the Niigata coastline, roughly at the midpoint between Niigata City and Joetsu, is a seismically tumultuous area however, and has had the unintended effect of forcing Koshinohomare to rebuild from scratch...more than once. In 1911, a fire swept through Kashiwazaki; fanned by the powerful
sea breeze, the entire brewery and all of its contents were lost. Believing that sake brings happiness to people, the family rebuilt. Nearly a century later, the 2007 Chuetsu-Oki earthquake shook Niigata with tremors of magnitude 7. And again, the flattened brewery was rebuilt. In a way though, this constant rebuilding has interrupted the status quo in Kashiwazaki City, leading to a stylistic divergence from the rest of Niigata which is evident in the 90 series as well as their stylish young neighbors, Abe Shuzo. Making sake
from table rice such as this limits the energy and cost demands of rice polishing, and simplifies the
supply chain, a benefit for farmers and a safeguard against catastrophic loss of demand, as in Covid.