Juyondai ─ The Most Coveted Name in Modern Sake

Audio Guide

Juyondai — One Minute of Stillness

A bottle harder to find than vintage Burgundy

0:00−:−−

If you find a bottle, share it. Solitary drinking wastes a Juyondai.

Soul of the Kura

In 1994, the fourteenth-generation heir
of a quiet 380-year-old Yamagata brewery
released a bottle so different from anything else
that Japan didn't quite know what to do with it.

Lush. Fragrant. Sweet at the edges.
Juyondai changed the entire idea of what sake could taste like.

Bottles now sell at auction within minutes of release.

Characteristics

Founded 1615 in Murayama, Yamagata.
Reborn in 1994 under Tatsuyoshi Takagi, the 15th-generation owner,
who launched the now-legendary Juyondai brand —
polished, fragrant, lush, deliberately fruit-forward.
Tiny production. Allocated only to a few hundred restaurants.
The most-traded sake on grey markets globally.

Reasons to Visit

壱
If you find a bottle, drink it
No marketing budget, no exports, no second chances. Juyondai is rumour and sip.
弐
Visit Yamagata's old castle town
Murayama preserves Edo merchant streets — the brewery is unmarked but pilgrims still find it.
参
Eat Yamagata cherries in season
June only. Tobacco-leaf-sized fruit. Juyondai pairs with the season more than the food.
四
Pair with Toga Jinja
Dewa's first-rank shrine on Mt. Chōkai's southern slope.
五
Visit Yamadera temple at dawn
A thousand stone steps to the cliff temple Bashō made famous. The mountain that watches the brewery.

Tasting Etiquette

Use a wine glass.
Juyondai's aromatics need a wide bowl.
Serve at 12°C.
Below 10°C the famous fragrance closes.
Drink immediately on opening.
Fresh fragrance fades within hours.
Pair with simple food, not bold.
The bottle is the event.
Photograph the label, not the contents.
A small superstition: the empty bottle is a relic.

Visit & Tasting

📍

Address

1826 Nakaikedera, Murayama-shi, Yamagata 995-0208

🚄

Access

Yamagata Shinkansen → Murayama Station

🕐

Hours

Closed to public

📅

Closed

Always

🥢

Tasting

Not available

📞

Reservation

Not accepted

🇬🇧

English

Not available

— Facilities —

🅿️ParkingNo

🚻RestroomN/A

🏷️ShopNo

📅TourNo

Brewery closed to all visitors. Bottles available only through allocated restaurants.

🗺 Directions 🌐 Search Official 📍 Open in Maps 📜 All Breweries

※ Hours, fees and contact details may change seasonally — please confirm on the brewery's official site before your visit.

Signature Labels

Complete the Sake Journey

Arrange your visit to Juyondai — stay nearby, get there, taste with a guide, or take a bottle home.

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Juyondai Junmai Daiginjo Ryushin 龍の落とし子

Junmai Daiginjo · estate Ryushin rice

Made from rare Ryushin rice the brewery developed itself. Auctions clear within seconds.

Juyondai Nakadori 中取り

Junmai Daiginjo · centre-cut from press

Only the middle of the press is bottled. Pristine, layered, almost ethereal.

Recommended Pairings

◆Yamagata sakuranbo cherries (June only)
◆Hirame usuzukuri — paper-thin flatfish sashimi
◆Miyagi tuna otoro (lightly seared)
◆Vanilla bean ice cream — the famous Tokyo bartender pairing

Pair With Pilgrimage

⛩

Ichinomiya of Dewa Province

Toga Jinja · Chōkai Lower Shrine

鳥海山大物忌神社

The first-rank shrine of Dewa,
set on the southern slope of holy Mt. Chōkai —
the volcano that watches over Yamagata's rice plains.
The same mountain whose ash enriches the soil
that grows the rice in your bottle.

Visit the Shrine →

Juyondai

🏨Stay Near the Kura

🚄Getting There

🍶Sake Tours & Tastings

🍵Sake Vessels & Bottles

Toga Jinja · Chōkai Lower Shrine