Last Updated: Dec 30, 2024

Save Time for Saijo

The “Sake Capital” of Hiroshima

This story was originally published on donnykimball.com and has been syndicated here on Medium.

By now, I think I’ve said this more times than I care to count, but there is simply so much more to Hiroshima Prefecture than most people realize. You see, far too many overseas visitors only ever stop by the Atomic Bomb Dome and the island of Miyajima. Alas, there is so much more to see and do in the greater prefecture. For example, the town of Saijo was somewhere I recently had the opportunity to explore, and it’s still largely unknown to people overseas. Located in the eastern part of Hiroshima Prefecture, Saijo is a place renowned across Japan for its high-quality sake.

Unlike many other areas famous for sake, Saijo got its start relatively late in the game. Due to its location higher up in the mountains than the rest of Hiroshima Prefecture, Saijo initially lacked the logistics needed to properly distribute the sake it produced to the rest of the country. Though situated on the highway connecting Kyushu and western Honshu with modern-day Tokyo, it wasn’t until the advent of early trains in the Meiji period (1868–1912) that Saijo began making its forays into sake production.

While comparatively late to the game in terms of mass distribution, Saijo is no slouch when it comes to sake making. The town’s emergence as a sake-brewing…