What Tasaki Shuzo is known for

Tasaki Shuzo has distilled sweet potato shochu in Ichikikushikino for more than 130 years, built around a spring the founder sought out for its water quality. The distillery pioneered long-term cask aging of raw shochu in the region and still produces its flagship Satsuma Tanabata using rice grown on nearby terraced paddies.

Tasaki Shuzo is a sweet potato shochu distillery in Ichikikushikino, Kagoshima Prefecture. It was founded more than a hundred years ago when its first owner settled on the site for its spring water. The company still describes that water as unusually good and pairs it with carefully selected local sweet potatoes. Its representative brand Satsuma Tanabata has been made since the founding, and rice from nearby terraced paddies serves as koji rice in the house fermentation method. The name recalls the Tanabata dance once performed in the town, a tradition the company helps to preserve. The distillery took an early interest in long term storage of raw spirit when aging drew little attention in the shochu world. It releases aged shochu rather than new spirit. The range runs from regular bottlings to limited and premium aged expressions, including old spirit stored in jars. A 2025 report by The Yomiuri Shimbun described visiting liquor experts comparing unfiltered and aged varieties at the distillery and touring its production facility. The company lists fourteen employees and a Tokyo sales office alongside its Ichikikushikino head office.