Matsui Sake Brewery: Oldest sake brewery in Kyoto

Matsui Shuzō (Matsui Sake Brewery) has a shop on the first floor of a condominium which is
surrounded by the Higashiyama mountains and Kamo River, with the Imperial Palace and Shimogamo Shrine to the west and a view to Mt. Daimonji to the east. Matsui Shuzō is one of the very few sake breweries that remains in operation in Kyoto today. The history of the brewery began in 1726, during the Edo period, at Kasumi-chō in Hyōgo prefecture facing the Sea of Japan. After relocating to Takeyamachi at Kawaramachi in Kyoto, it was finally relocated to the currently location at Yoshida-Kawaramachi in Sakyō-ku at the end of the Taishō period.Sake
production was forced to stop due to underground construction work in the neighbourhood during the latter half of Shōwa 40s (around 1970-1974). The brewery was relocated to Fushimi, where sake production resumed in cooperation with several other brewers. Matsui Shuzō’s Kamogawa Brewery was revived in 2009 and has been in operation since. The brewery has been producing sake with the same unchanging spirit for 290 years since its establishment.