Shimizu Jozo Co., the sake brewery of ZAKU, locates in Suzuka, Mie-Prefecture.
Suzuka is an old toponym and has a long history of sake brewing.
The pellucid water originating from the Suzuka Mountains and supply of good rice from the Ise Plain made this place as a right place for sake brewing.
In classic literatures and poetries, Suzuka was praised with the epithet umasake (good-sake-yielding).
As Suzuka lies on the way from Kyoto to Ise, the holy place of Shinto religion, many pilgrims have passed through Suzuka.
Though accustomed to the sophisticated sake of the ancient capital, the pilgrims might have been amazed by the quality of the local sake and the fame of Suzuka would have reached as far as Kyoto.
 
Shimizu Jozo was established by Seizaburo Shimizu in 1869.
Though many sake breweries prospered at that time, Shimizu Jozo is the sole brewery now existing in Suzuka.
We think it is our duty to carry on the tradition of this umasake land and brew good sake to keep up with the reputation.

Recent development of brewing technology made sake something like industrial products.
Automatic koji machine dramatically reduced labor hours and computer-controlled gigantic thermal tank enabled the production of homogeneous sake.
Sake used to be, however, much more like agricultural products.
The condition of fermentation was different in each tank and the analytical value of the product was not always the same.
The toji, head sake brewer, depended on his feeling to bring harmony to the taste of sake.
 
Such sake used to have more dynamic power and wildness that impress human feeling.
Our aim is to brew sake as agricultural products.
For most of the brewing process we stick to handwork.
Our koji*, especially, is 100 percent hand-grown.
The brewers wash and steep rice by their own hands even in the severe coldness of mid-winter.
According to its growth stages, koji has to be taken care of.
This work is irregular in time.
The brewers have to mix koji sometimes at midnight, sometimes before dawn.
For the fermentation we use small tanks and the amount of rice we use for one batch is less than 1 ton.
To brew sake in such small tanks is not efficient compared with using large tanks.
 
But we can comprehend the condition of fermentation more easily and control the temperature more precisely; this eventually reflects on the quality of sake.
Our fermentation period takes more than 30 days and this is longer than usual.
This slow fermentation at low temperature makes sake more fragrant with delicate aroma.
In many other breweries, these methods―hand-grown koji, small scale fermentation and long fermentation period―are adopted only for their daiginjo (the highest class sake).
 

* koji：

rice cultured with koji mold. This mold produces enzymes which convert starch into sugar.

National New Sake Awards (National Research Institute of Brewing)
2001 Gold Prize
2005 Silver Prize
2007 Gold Prize
2008 Gold Prize
2009 Gold Prize

Mie-Prefecture New Sake Awards
2005 Category Ginjo：   First Place (Governor's Award)
2005 Category Junmai-Ginjo：   First Place (Assembly-Chairman's Award)
2006 Category Junmai-Ginjo：   First Place (Assembly-Chairman's Award)
2007 Category Ginjo：   First Place (Governor's Award)
2009 Category Junmai-Ginjyo：   First Place (Assenbly-Chairman's Awards)

U.S.A. National Sake Appraisal (International Sake Association)
2006 Golden Award of Excellence
2007 Golden Award of Excellence
2008 Golden Award of Excellence

IWC (International Wine Challenge)
2008 Silver Medal Junmai-Ginjyo
2008 Silver Medal Daiginjyo
2009 Silver Medal Junmai-Ginjyo
2009 Gold Medal Daiginjyo

Company Name	Shimizu Jozo Co., Sake Brewery
Chairman	Shin-ichiro Shimizu
Established	1869
Capital	16.8 million yen
Number of employees	15
Annual sales	230 million yen
Annual sake sales	90 kilo litters
Address	3-9-33 Wakamatsu-higashi, Suzuka-City Mie-Prefecture 510-0225 JAPAN
E-Mail	contact@zaku.co.jp

ZAKU
 
The meaning of ZAKU is very simple; it means 'to create', 'to produce', or 'to make'.
The most important thing for sake is how it impresses people.
The brewers therefore employ all their experience and passion to brew as good sake as possible.
This is all what brewers can do.
The final impression of sake is created not only by the quality, but by a remark of the retailer, comment of the sommelier, atmosphere of the restaurant, the food, friends, conversation, etc.
ZAKU is named, therefore, as its real value is created by a lot of people and factors combined together to produce irreplaceable moment.