6th Generation Brewer Sato Jumpei's Resume
Establishing the "TATENOKAWA" Brand: Part 1 ("TATENOKAWA" Newspaper 10/01/2013）
In October 2013, the production yield at the brewery was approximately 150 koku (15000 x 1.8L). At that time, there were around 58 breweries in the Shonai region of Yamagata Prefecture, all of which probably had higher yields than our own. Knowing next to nothing about sake or the industry, I returned to the brewery, armed with only the determination to revive a company that could fold at any time; there were no assurances that I would succeed.
If I had had the financial knowledge and understood what sort of situation the sake industry was in, then I probably would have realised how serious the reality was. On the other hand not knowing was probably actually a good thing. The company had debts that were close to 10 times that of sales so I knew that somehow I had to continue to repay those, and I also wanted to raise production levels up to 500 koku, the long-term goal at the time being to one day become a brewery on the scale of 2000-5000 koku.
Production in the first year was a very low 20 tanks only which, before I knew what was happening, was over by the middle of February. The first batch was a junmai and junmai ginjo made with locally grown Miyama Nishiki, Dewasansan and yeast No.9 which, as far as the contents were concerned, were no better than futushu (table sake) but thankfully with the support of everyone around us and the many sake suppliers, we were able to establish a new brand and started to ship nationwide. It was the first year that the newly reborn brand "TATENOKAWA" —written, as it was when the business first started: all in Chinese characters — took its first steps.
6th Generation Brewer Sato Jumpei
