Iinuma Honke sake brewery marks 300 years with a banquet
A 300-year-old brewery in Chiba pours its new-season junmai daiginjo hours off the press at a two-day banquet for 26 guests a night.
Iinuma Honke sake brewery, working the same site in Chiba prefecture for more than 300 years, marks the pressing of its new-season junmai daiginjo with a two-day banquet on November 6 and 7.
The event, called Shuen Shisui no Yoake 2026, runs from 6pm to 8.30pm each night at Kinoene Omoya, a roughly 300-year-old farmhouse registered as a Tangible Cultural Property, set around a garden where fireflies appear in season.
A sake nouveau served hours off the press
The banquet is timed to start on the day the new-season sake ships.
The featured sake, junmai daiginjo "Shisui no Yoake", is the brewery's sake nouveau for the Kinoene year: unpasteurised, bottled and shipped within 24 hours of pressing, with a fresh fizziness, a fragrant aroma, crisp acidity and fruity flavour suited to seafood, lightly sweet miso dishes and cheese. The banquet is timed to start on the day the sake ships. Additional Iinuma Honke sake is poured through the courses.
Chef Koichi Tomizawa of Nihon Ryori Yoshimura advises on the menu, a seasonal course built around the 24 solar terms with autumn ingredients: zensai, maehassun, a wanmori soup, mukozuke, grilled and simmered fish and a susumezakana course, followed by a rice course and sweets. Tickets cost ¥16,500 a person, including tax, service and the sake pairing. The brewery caps each night at 26 guests, open to ages 20 and over, with a free shuttle from JR and Keisei Shisui stations and booking through its online shop.
Three centuries on the same stretch of Chiba
Iinuma Honke has operated in Shisui Town since the Edo period, making it one of the longer-running sake houses still family-run on its original site. The banquet format, small, seasonal and tied to a single pressing, sits apart from Japan's larger sake moments this month: Tokyo's SAKE PARK is back with 28 breweries, while Iwakuni producer Dassai has just signed a deal for a third brewery. Between a 28-brewery festival and a national brand's third plant, a 300-year-old house pouring sake for 26 people a night is the smallest possible counterpoint, and, this week, the point.
