Three Medals for Toyonoume, Our Kochi Brewery at Sake Competition 2026

Takagi Shuzo brewery in Akaoka, Kochi Prefecture, makers of Toyonoume sake

Three sakes from Takagi Shuzo took medals at Sake Competition 2026, including a Silver for the Tosakinzo Tokubetsu Junmai we carry, and another for a bottle arriving here this year in time for summer.

Takagi Shuzo is the brewery behind Toyonoume, in Akaoka on the Kochi coast. They are who we poured alongside at the Melbourne Sake Festival, and most of the Kochi sake on our shelves is theirs.

Silver, Junmai: Tosakinzo Tokubetsu Junmai

This one keeps turning up. It won Gold last year, placing 8th in the Junmai category out of 1,163 entries, and it is back with a Silver in 2026.

It is brewed with a yeast that has a better travel history than most people. Strains AA41 and AC17 were cultured in space, then sunk to 6,200 metres and left there for months under roughly 600 atmospheres of pressure. What survived went into this bottle. It drinks dry, with melon and banana on the nose and enough structure for yakitori and karaage.

Tosakinzo Tokubetsu Junmai, Silver medal winner at Sake Competition 2026

Shop Tosakinzo Tokubetsu Junmai

Silver, Junmai Ginjo: Toyonoume Junmai Ginjo Yoiyoi

This one is on its way to us, arriving later this year in time for summer. It will be the first time we have carried it.

Kochi grown rice polished to 60 percent, Kochi yeast AC95, 16 percent alcohol. The name comes from the chant at the Dorome Festival on Akaoka's beach, a few minutes from the brewery, and it also reads as "you do not tire of it as the evening goes on", which is the point of it. Green apple on the nose, settled sweetness, clean acidity underneath. A dinner sake that happens to be very good cold, which is what you want in an Australian December.

Bronze, Junmai: Sora to Umi

"Sky and Sea", and the name is literal. This is Tosakinzo's sibling, built on the same AA41 and AC17 yeast. Cultured in space in 2005, then sent to 6,000 metres off Minami-Tori-shima for close to a year, and again to 6,200 metres off Ibaraki. The brewery calls it a world first.

We do not import this one. We are mentioning it because it explains the other two. This is a brewery that sends yeast to the bottom of the ocean to see what happens, and then wins medals with what comes back.

Official Sake Competition 2026 results  |  Takagi Shuzo's announcement

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