From Heir to Brewer: A New Path Begins

Born in 1974 as the eldest son of a long-established sake brewing family, Takao Kurosawa attended a local high school before enrolling at Tokyo University of Agriculture to study fermentation.

After graduation, he naturally expected to take over the family business.

However, during his university years, a professor introduced him to a job opportunity at a pickle manufacturing company.

At the time, around 1996, craft beer was booming across Japan, and the company was launching a new beer production business.

Interested in learning from a different industry, he joined the company.

However, just before he started, the company discovered that his family owned a sake brewery, and he was not assigned to the beer division.

Returning Home and Building a Brewery Together

After several years working on product development for pickles, he left the company.

In 2001, he joined Kurosawa Brewery as the sixth-generation successor. That same year, his younger brother Yohei also joined, marking the beginning of their partnership in sake brewing.

In 2002, Takao launched the “Yachiho Bishokai,” a membership program that allows participants to experience the entire process, from rice cultivation to sake brewing.

Drawing on his previous experience, he also acquired a license to produce pickles and began selling kasuzuke products such as white melon and myoga.

He refined a sake originally intended for export and relaunched it as the “Kurosawa Series.”

Available only through select retailers, it has gained popularity as a rare and exclusive sake.

In 2019, he co-founded the Saku SAKE Aging Research Group and began experimenting with aging sake in a nearby dam.

In 2023, he marked ten years as president, and his continued success is highly anticipated.

The History of Kurosawa Brewery

Kurosawa Brewery was founded in 1858 during the late Edo period by Rizaemon Kurosawa.

In the Meiji era, the family expanded into various businesses, including banking, textiles, sake, miso, soy sauce, and pharmaceuticals.

They adopted the name “Maruto,” symbolizing their wish for the five family branches to flourish like the rising sun.

Later, Rizaemon divided the businesses among his five sons.

The eldest managed banking, the second handled textiles, the third continued sake brewing, the fourth produced miso and soy sauce, and the fifth worked in pharmaceuticals.

The banking business eventually became the foundation of what is now the Hachijuni Bank.

The sake brewing business was passed down through the third son’s line, making Takao the sixth-generation successor.

Since its founding, the brewery has focused on traditional kimoto-style brewing, using soft water from the Chikuma River and locally grown rice from Nagano.