About us

Our values

Originator of sake culture

Japanese sake, which used to be considered indispensable to our daily lives, is now facing its greatest turning point. It has ceased to be a necessity even on ceremonial occasions and is no longer the topmost item of choice. Nevertheless, it is an undeniable fact that Japanese sake played a role in shaping our culture. We hope to create new values through people and sake by reinterpreting the culture that has been created through sake brewing.

The originator of sake culture

While cherishing the 300-year tradition of Iinuma Honke
that has been passed down since ancient Japan,
we will take the courage to continue changing
with the flexibility to fulfill the happiness of those presently enjoying sake.
We are creating a Shisui-based sake culture
to introduce to all of Japan and throughout the world.

Message from the president

Narrating more of the future than the history
In pursuit of our creative endeavors

Brewing sake with an aim to inspire an image of a refined countryside may oftentimes be associated with words such as eternal, old, and tradition. However, the people drinking sake and those brewing it are all living in the present. Kinoene Masamune has a history of over 300 years, but we would not have been able to carry on our heritage for this many years had we continued to manufacture sake in the same method as our ancestors. Therefore, as a sake brewer, we are currently focused on narrating more of the future than the history in pursuing our creative endeavors.

We pride ourselves in the creation of Kinoene Masamune, which we believe spearheads the new wave of sake. Our mastery of sake brewing involves setting high targets to achieve the desired quality and taste as well as to aspire toward further advancement. Sake cannot exist independently on its own and, therefore, should always be considered with an awareness for its relationship with food. Naturally, we craft our sake with the intention of pairing it with washoku (traditional Japanese cuisine), a registered Intangible Cultural Heritage of the world. That is why Kinoene Masamune is so palatable when it becomes a part of the dining experience.

What we also want now is for young people to drink and familiarize themselves with sake. We believe our efforts would be fruitless if the upcoming generation does not appreciate our sake. As a solution to this concern, we have entrusted young sake brewers to take charge of manufacturing Kinoene Masamune and created a competitive setting where brewers at their peak drinking age and at the height of their careers can test their skills against one another. Through these efforts, we have successfully shifted to a system that allows us to create sake that distinctively caters to a younger clientele. From there, we have gradually moved onward and upward to a point where we now deliver highly acclaimed sake into the market.

I will always aspire to put Shisui, Chiba on the map alongside the Kinoene Masamune brand.

Kiichiro Iinuma
President, Iinuma Honke

Image Movie

Brewery tourism

In almost every region is a longstanding sake brewery, and it’s not rare to come across one that was founded as late as the Edo period. With today’s advancement in logistics and transport, products can easily be acquired from any region, but we are confident in saying that no entity has embodied the history of its region as much as sake breweries have. We hope to promote the Shisui community, which had never been the center for tourism, through our brewery and communicate the charms of the locale to the rest of Japan.