Nada and Fushimi: The Story of Japan’s Two Great Sake Regions

There is a Japanese saying: “Nada’s masculine sake, Fushimi’s feminine sake.”

Nada in Hyogo and Fushimi in Kyoto have both stood at the center of sake brewing since the Edo period, yet the sake they make sits at opposite poles. The difference is usually explained by water quality. That explanation is correct — but it is only half the story.

Why did these two districts in particular grow so enormous? The answer involves more than water. It also involves economics: where the sake was sold.

The Discovery of Miyamizu

What defined the sake of Nada was miyamizu (literally “shrine water”).

What makes the story unusual is how clearly the discovery has been handed down. In Tenpo 8 (1837) — by another account Tenpo 11 (1840) — Yamamura Tazaemon, the sixth-generation owner of the Sakura Masamune brewery, noticed that the sake he brewed at his two sites, Nishinomiya and Uozaki, did not taste the same. Same rice, same techniques, same toji. And still the Nishinomiya sake was better.

Eliminating the variables one by one, he arrived at the water. It was the water from the “Umenoki well” at his Umenoki brewery in Nishinomiya that produced the difference in quality. From then on, Nada’s breweries drew that water in earnest, carrying it back to their own kura by boat and by barrel. The water welling up across the area southeast of Nishinomiya Shrine came to be known as miyamizu.

The composition of miyamizu has clear, distinctive traits.

• Rich in potassium and phosphorus — both nourish yeast and koji mold
• Low in iron — iron clouds the color of sake and spoils its flavor, and is considered the brewer’s greatest enemy
• High hardness — mineral-rich hard water

Abundant nutrients, and none of the iron that gets in the way. For yeast, this is an ideal environment. Fermentation runs strong and fast, and the sugars convert to alcohol without leaving residue. The result is a crisp, dry sake. The character people call “masculine sake” follows directly from this water.

Fushimi’s Water Works More Gently

Fushimi, by contrast, brews with water typified by gokosui.

The spring at Gokonomiya Shrine has been named to the Ministry of the Environment’s list of Japan’s 100 Best Waters, and people still come to draw from it. Tradition holds that in the Heian period a fragrant water welled up within the shrine grounds and healed the illness of those who drank it, prompting Emperor Seiwa to bestow the name “Gokonomiya” (shrine of fragrant water).

The groundwater throughout Fushimi is medium-hard, containing moderate amounts of calcium and magnesium. Because it carries fewer minerals than Nada’s miyamizu, fermentation proceeds slowly. Sake fermented over a longer stretch of time is restrained in acidity, soft on the palate, and fine in texture. The umami of the rice tends to remain, and the whole comes together in a mellow direction. This is the origin of the name “feminine sake.”

Incidentally, since the Edo period Fushimi has also been written as “Fushimizu” (伏水, “hidden water”). The richness of the local groundwater shows up in the very writing of the place name. In 1868 (the first year of Meiji), it was even used officially, in the form “Fushimizu Yakusho” (the Fushimizu government office).

Two places in the same Kansai region, barely an hour apart by car, produce sake this different on the strength of their water alone. There may be no clearer demonstration of how much water weighs in sake.

What Made Nada Enormous Was Edo

Still, good water alone does not make a region the largest in Japan. Nada had one more decisive advantage: it faced the sea.

In the Edo period, sake carried from the Kamigata region to Edo was called kudarizake (sake shipped down to Edo). The transport was handled by taru-kaisen, barrel ships built specifically to carry sake, and vast quantities of casks traveled by sea from the shores of Nada and Imadzu to Edo.

The scale was remarkable. By the late Edo period, the taru-kaisen bound for Edo were carrying one million barrels a year, accounting for roughly 80 percent of the sake drunk in Edo. Edo at the time was one of the most populous cities in the world, a consumer market of extraordinary size. Having a location from which ships could sail there directly is what determined Nada’s scale.

The technical expertise came from the Tamba toji. These were guilds of master brewers who came each winter as seasonal laborers from the villages around Taki District (present-day Tamba-Sasayama), and who had originally plied their craft in the breweries of Itami and Ikeda. Itami’s “Kenbishi,” which made its name in the Genroku era, was among their work. From the mid-Edo period onward, those Tamba toji moved on to Nada and Imadzu.

Excellent water, a sea route to a vast consumer market, and a skilled workforce. With all three in place, Nada became a region without rival.

Fushimi Was the Sake of the Capital

Fushimi’s circumstances were different.

Fushimi was the castle town where Toyotomi Hideyoshi built Fushimi Castle, and it had the consumer market of Kyoto immediately next door. It was also a hub of transport, linked to Osaka by the water routes of the Uji and Yodo rivers. Rather than a region shipping in bulk to Edo, it developed as a producer of sake to be drunk within the food culture of the capital.

Kyoto cuisine is built on delicate seasoning centered on dashi. This was a place that called for sake with soft edges, sake that would not erase the aroma of the ingredients. The character of Fushimi sake — fermented gently with medium-hard water — meshes well with that culinary tradition.

Water quality determines the sake, and the food culture of the consuming city endorses that sake. Fushimi’s “feminine sake” is a character created by water and city together.

The Two Regions Today

Nada Gogo is the collective name for five sake-brewing districts lined up along the coast from Kobe to Nishinomiya.

• Nishigo
• Mikagego
• Uozakigo
• Nishinomiyago
• Imadzugo

This area alone accounts for roughly a quarter of Japan’s total seishu production. On June 28, 2018, the National Tax Agency designated “Nada Gogo” as a Geographical Indication (GI). Only sake meeting the standards for ingredients and production methods may carry the name.

Fushimi likewise remains a major region, and Kyoto Prefecture holds the second-largest production volume of any prefecture, after Hyogo.

Aspect	Nada	Fushimi
Water quality	Hard water (miyamizu)	Medium-hard water (gokosui and others)
Principal minerals	Rich in potassium and phosphorus, low in iron	Moderate calcium and magnesium
Fermentation	Strong and fast	Gentle and long
Sake character	Crisp and dry, somewhat higher acidity	Mellow, restrained acidity, fine-textured
Common name	Masculine sake (otoko-zake)	Feminine sake (onna-zake)
Driver of growth	Kudarizake to Edo (taru-kaisen)	Kyoto as a market and castle-town culture

Representative Breweries

In Nada, well-known names include Hakutsuru Sake Brewing (Mikagego), Kikumasamune Sake Brewing (Mikagego), which continues to uphold kimoto brewing, Kenbishi Sake Brewing, with a history reaching back to the Muromachi period, Ozeki (Imadzugo), which changed when and how people drink sake with its One Cup, and Nihonsakari in Nishinomiya. It is a region of large producers, yet many of its breweries maintain labor-intensive traditional methods such as kimoto and yamahai.

In Fushimi there is Gekkeikan, founded in 1637; Kizakura, familiar for its mascot character; Takara Shuzo, maker of “Shochikubai”; Tamanohikari Sake Brewing, the pioneer that revived junmai-shu in 1964; and Saito Sake Brewing (Eikun), which has accumulated high marks at the Annual Japan Sake Awards.

Food and Temperature

Nada sake suits dishes with pronounced fat and umami. Oil-rich grilled Pacific saury or yellowtail, tempura, sukiyaki, kabayaki-grilled eel — the acidity and crispness cut through the fat, so the meal never turns heavy. Many of these sakes tighten up further when warmed, and kimoto-style sake in particular takes well to heating.

Fushimi sake is one to pair with delicate cooking: clear soups and simmered dishes, yudofu, white-fish sashimi, obanzai. Because it does not mask the aroma of dashi, the food is free to stay the centerpiece. Chilled, at room temperature, or at nurukan (lukewarm) are all easy ranges to work with.

If You Visit

In Nada Gogo, facilities open to visitors line the Sake Brewery Street. The Hakutsuru Sake Brewery Museum uses an actual former brewery to show the brewing process, while the Kikumasamune Sake Brewery Museum displays the tools of kimoto brewing. Near Nishinomiya Shrine stand the miyamizu wells, where you can still watch the water being drawn today.

Fushimi offers a compact landscape of breweries and canals. The Gekkeikan Okura Sake Museum is a museum housed in an old brewery, tracing the history of sake brewing in Fushimi. There are also venues where you can try sake from several breweries at once, which makes for good comparative tasting. In spring, the jikkokubune boats ply the canals, offering a view of the breweries’ white walls and the cherry blossoms from the water.

Both are close to major cities and within easy reach for a day trip — an advantage worth noting.

Beyond “Masculine” and “Feminine”

In recent years this binary has become less strict than it once was.

More breweries in Nada now make soft junmai sake, and Fushimi produces dry sake built for crispness. As milling technology has advanced and the range of yeast choices has widened, water quality alone no longer determines the character of a sake.

Even so, it remains true that the nature of the water is the starting point of the brewing. Hard water encourages vigorous fermentation, medium-hard water a gentler one — taste the two regions side by side with that principle in mind, and you begin to see, in the flavor itself, where the difference comes from.

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The difference between Nada and Fushimi is not one of superior and inferior. It is the result of two sets of conditions — hard water and medium-hard water — each crystallizing into the best answer for its own place. And behind that lie two entirely different histories: a region that sent ships to Edo, and a region that stayed close to the tables of the capital.

Pour a glass of each side by side, and there comes a moment when the conversation about water turns into a conversation about taste.

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For other regions such as Niigata, see Niigata Sake.

How to enjoy sake while traveling is covered in detail in How to Enjoy Local Sake.

Sources: Nada Gogo Sake Brewers Association; National Tax Agency, “List of Geographical Indications for Alcoholic Beverages”; Fushimi Sake Brewers Association; Ministry of the Environment, “100 Best Waters: Fushimi no Gokosui”; City of Tamba-Sasayama (Tamba toji); Japan Heritage Portal, “‘Itami Morohaku’ and ‘Nada no Kiippon’”