TOJI × Sake Brewery Stories Vol.02: Miyasaka Brewing, Head of the President's Office
Returning to the Origin to Polish the Brand―Katsuhiko Miyasaka, Shaping Masumi's Future Through Heritage and New Challenges
Can the value of a sake brewery be fully told by the taste of its sake alone?
Its relationship with the culture of its land and the dining table, the philosophy of its makers, and the words and forms through which these have been passed on.
In a brewery that has lived through a long history, a consistent core may live on just as much as its flavor.
Miyasaka Brewing, founded in 1662, brews Masumi sake.
Known as the birthplace of Kyokai No. 7 yeast, Masumi has spent the past ten years quietly but surely rethinking not only the quality of its sake, but also how it is communicated and the very outline of what it is.
The person who has driven this change from within is Katsuhiko Miyasaka, Head of the President's Office of Miyasaka Brewing.
Though born and raised as the heir to the brewery, Mr. Miyasaka did not choose to join it right away.
Starting from his experiences abroad in high school, he studied in the United States, worked at the Isetan department store, and sold sake in London. By deliberately placing himself outside the brewery, he developed his own perspective while encountering different values and the "good things" valued around the world.
How is sake seen in the world's markets?
Why do strong brands keep being chosen?
The consistency backed by aesthetics that he saw on the Isetan sales floor. The difficulty, faced in London restaurants, of explaining in an instant who this brewery is.
These experiences outside later became a solid viewpoint for facing Masumi.
When Mr. Miyasaka returned to the brewery in 2013 at age 28, he faced head-on the fundamental question: what makes Masumi Masumi?
A return to No. 7 yeast, a renewed logo, and planning with overseas markets in mind.
These were not choices to add new value, but to strengthen Masumi's identity by returning to its origins.
In this interview, Ozaki of TOJI spoke with Katsuhiko Miyasaka about his path before joining the brewery and the perspective he gained outside, the thinking behind the return to origins, and the organization and outlook for the next ten years.
Echoing the "origins of sake brewing" told in the master brewer edition, this time we explore where Masumi stands today from the perspective of management and communication.
A Formative Experience Abroad ⎯ "Taking Over the Brewery" Was Always on My Mind
Ozaki:
First, we'd like to ask about your upbringing. What kind of environment did you grow up in as a child and student?
Miyasaka:
I was born in 1986 in Suwa, Nagano. My family's business is Miyasaka Brewing, which brews Masumi, and the brewery was simply part of everyday life when I was a child.
From an early age, taking over the brewery was less a special mission and more something that would happen someday. It was naturally in the back of my mind.
At the same time, I looked at the world outside Suwa from early on. That was because of my father. He turned to overseas markets back when exporting sake was still uncommon, and often traveled abroad for trade shows and business meetings. Many overseas customers came to the brewery, and sometimes we shared a meal together after a brewery tour.
So the word "overseas" was less a distant dream and more an extension of daily life.
In high school, that feeling became sharper. In my first year, my father took me to VINEXPO, the wine trade show in Bordeaux, France. Alcohol from all over the world gathered there, but sake was still an overwhelmingly minor presence.
On my first visit, I couldn't speak the language or explain anything properly. But standing there left me with a strong feeling: to talk about sake in this world, you need language, at the very least.
That led me to spend a year in the United States through the AFS exchange program in my third year of high school. I went to a small town in South Dakota with about ten students per grade, where everyone from kindergarten to high school shared the same building.
At the time I thought there was nothing there. But when I visited the town again as an adult, I realized for the first time how rich it is when people are close to each other and the land and daily life are connected. I think this experience later became the foundation for thinking about what sake rooted in the land means.
"See Japan from the Outside Once"⎯ A Choice Before Joining Masumi
Ozaki:
Please tell us why, after graduating from university, you chose to gain experience outside rather than join the brewery right away.
Miyasaka:
Precisely because I would take over the brewery someday, I felt I needed to learn outside. I chose to work at Isetan (now Isetan Mitsukoshi Ltd.).
They had a system, a kind of apprenticeship, for taking in and training the children of business partners for a set period, and I spent two years on the department store floor. In my first year I worked in women's clothing and in my second in food. The floor had many brands with different price ranges and worlds, each with a clear philosophy and sense of beauty.
What struck me most was that the stronger the brand, the more consistent its creations are, grounded in an aesthetic. This realization later became a very important perspective in thinking about the Masumi brand.
After leaving Isetan, I went to London. I worked for a trading company handling sake, visiting local restaurants and recommending sake to match their food and price range. How do you communicate sake in a market where wine culture is overwhelmingly rooted? In sales, you have to convey who this brewery is briefly and accurately, in very limited time.
At the time, Masumi made many different types of sake. If you compare it to clothing, it was like offering everything from dresses to casual wear. So, honestly, it was very hard to say in one sentence, "This is what Masumi's sake is."
When I joined the brewery in 2013 at 28, what I felt strongly was that Masumi had made good sake, but was not in a position where anyone could explain what its sake was aiming for. Masumi had long made good things, but to me at the time, each item seemed to be heading in a slightly different direction.
I felt strongly that this couldn't go on precisely because I had spent years looking at sake from outside the brewery. Over time, that sense of unease became clearer and clearer.
Introducing Masumi sake in London, 2013
The Turning Point Was a Pairing at a Sushi Restaurant⎯ Why We Returned to No. 7 Yeast
Ozaki:
Within Masumi's return to origins, the "return to No. 7 yeast" seems especially symbolic. Please tell us about that turning point.
Miyasaka:
It started with one remark at a sushi restaurant: "Why not try pairing a sake with each topping?" On a day off, I actually brought several of our sakes and tried it.
We matched this one with tuna, that one with white fish, and so on, but surprisingly, what suited Masumi's sake best was not the sushi toppings at all, but the takuan pickles served along the way. It also went very well with pickled burdock and preserved foods like that.
That's when it hit me.
Coastal regions and inland regions have different food cultures to begin with.
In regions near the sea, like Ishikawa, Fukui and Miyagi, fresh fish is part of everyday life. It's only natural that sake born there pairs well with seafood. Nagano, on the other hand, is inland. On its daily tables are vegetables, miso and pickles, and meat.
If so, I thought, rather than forcing ourselves to make sake that suits sushi, we should pursue sake rooted in the food culture of this land.
In the past, winning at competitions was also a major goal. In that case, a sake that is showy and memorable in one sip is stronger. In fact, I think that value system existed across the whole industry.
No. 7 yeast, by contrast, is rather "plain." It is not the type that asserts itself with a showy aroma.
Even so, if we were to put something at the core of Masumi, it could only be No. 7 yeast.
A sake that accompanies the inland dining table and that you can keep drinking with your daily meals. I recognized again that No. 7 yeast expresses that most honestly.
Ozaki:
Still, building agreement within the company to move forward with the return to No. 7 yeast can't have been easy.
Miyasaka:
It wasn't easy. For the first three years after I returned in 2013, I was constantly struggling. When I said I wanted to go back to No. 7 yeast, it wasn't accepted right away.
There were many reasons, but the big one was that the floor at the time had the mindset of "matching what sells." Sake that sells in Tokyo, sake that is praised overseas. Making items that follow such trends is easy to understand in the short term, and not something you can simply reject.
But to me, it seemed that as this built up, it became harder and harder to see where Masumi was heading. I just couldn't shake that unease.
I also felt impatient. If you try to change everything at once, you get pushback, and above all, if "going back to No. 7 yeast" becomes the goal itself, you drift from the real intention. What I wanted was to regain Masumi's flavor and core through No. 7 yeast as a means.
So first, I changed how I made the proposal.
Instead of switching everything back to No. 7 yeast, we first launched one new concept built around it. In other words, we created an "experimental line" within the company. That was the MIYASAKA series.
MIYASAKA is brewed entirely with No. 7 yeast, but rather than a classic that simply protects the old, it uses today's techniques and sensibilities to create a modern flavor.
Against the fixed idea that No. 7 yeast is plain, we aimed to redefine it by showing how much No. 7 yeast can express. In short, rather than persuading with words, I chose to convince with taste.
Meanwhile, the atmosphere in the company gradually changed.
People on the floor started saying, "The No. 7 sake is good," and the No. 7 direction began to be shared not as an ideal but as a real sense of progress. Once we got there, the debate shifted from whether to go back to how to refine what makes Masumi Masumi with No. 7 yeast.
As a result, sooner than I expected, we were able to use No. 7 yeast for all our sake from the 2019 brewing season.
Looking back now, those three years were long. But because we took that time, it feels like more than a change in production method: a single core now runs through the Masumi brand.
By returning to No. 7 yeast, we could finally say who Masumi is in our own words and with our own sake. I think it was that kind of turning point.
Toward Sake Spoken of by Global Standards: A Logo Renewal That Had to Happen
Ozaki:
Was an overseas perspective a big part of the background to Masumi's new logo?
Miyasaka:
Yes, I think it was very big.
As a premise, Japan's population will certainly shrink. Looking only at the domestic market, it is hard to maintain sales. With that in mind, how to grow overseas markets was an unavoidable theme.
But selling sake overseas, one thing always bothered me: the kanji barrier. In Europe and the U.S., almost no one can read kanji. No matter how much history or story you have, people first can't read or remember the name. And then, the reality is that you don't even make it onto the list of options.
That is why I felt we needed a mark that people could visually remember without relying on kanji.
That doesn't mean throwing away what is Japanese. If anything, it was closer to creating an "entrance" so that Masumi could be recognized even without a shared language.
Looking at the wine world at the time, label design was changing greatly.
Rather than explaining the region or the maker's philosophy in long text, there was a trend toward stronger symbolism, such as animals, symbols and numbers, that you can recognize intuitively without reading the words.
Old classic designs still exist, but updates with a stronger awareness of how a brand is seen around the world were moving forward.
I felt Masumi had reached the same phase.
With the return to No. 7 yeast, a single core ran through the sake itself. Then the next question was how to convey that core to the outside. One answer was renewing the logo.
The new logo was designed to be recognizable even if you can't read kanji, without losing Masumi's stillness, dignity and long history.
It is not a design made to stand out loudly, but one designed so that anywhere in the world, you can tell, "This is Masumi."
Changing the logo doesn't change the sake itself.
But I do feel we added one more language for facing the world.
I think it was the moment when the inside and the outside finally began to face the same direction.
*Ivy, the family crest of the Miyasaka family. Ivy, which climbs strongly and grows thick with leaves, has long been a symbol of prosperity. Ivy leaves reflected on a water mirror or in a sake cup are shaped into a ring (輪, wa), echoing the harmony (和, wa) of wajo ryoshu, "brew in harmony and good sake is made," valued by brewers. It carries the two sides of tradition and innovation in the brand message "Connecting people, nature and time," the gentle, harmonious flavor of No. 7 yeast, and the wish to share sake culture with the world.
Rebuilding the Domestic Market ⎯ Toward "Quality Chosen by People Who Drink Because They Love It"
Ozaki:
While the overseas share is growing, fewer people in Japan are drinking. How do you see the domestic market?
Miyasaka:
Domestic sales are definitely falling. Covid had an effect, and places to eat and drink themselves have changed.
But I don't want to dismiss it as "because the population fell." The demographics are a fact, but if we make that the only reason, I feel we would stop thinking for ourselves.
More fundamentally, I feel the way people drink sake is changing.
Until now, I think drinking for social obligation played a large part. Matching your boss, matching the occasion, drinking because it's hard to say no. That kind of drinking existed to some degree in society.
Then, to put it in extreme terms, being cheap or available in quantity could take priority over whether it tastes good.
But I think that structure will change from now on.
Fewer people will be pushed into drinking. What remains are people who drink because they love it. Some people's bodies don't suit alcohol, and some can't drink at all. As choosing not to drink becomes normal, those who still drink do so because they love it. To keep being chosen by them, quality will matter more than ever.
By quality, I don't just mean a showy, easy-to-understand deliciousness.
Not tiring of it, naturally accompanying the dining table, the second and third glasses still tasting good. That kind of lasting goodness becomes even more important.
People who drink because they love it pay attention to exactly that, and they're honest.
So rebuilding the domestic market is not about advertising to spread quickly, but about carefully building up once again the reason to be chosen: what Masumi's sake is for.
The return to No. 7 yeast and building the brand's core all connect to that in the end. It's not about winning with flash, but about making sake that the people who love it truly choose.
Of course it's not easy. As drinkers and non-drinkers divide more clearly, the base gets smaller. But for those who choose Masumi, we keep delivering quality that never lets them down.
I think that is the challenge in Japan.
Using Sake Kasu and the Value of "Experience" ⎯ Toward a Brewery Open Even to Those Who Don't Drink
Ozaki:
What did you first think when you heard about a bath product made with sake kasu?
Miyasaka:
When I first heard it, honestly, I thought it was interesting. Sake kasu won't keep selling the way it used to, and for a brewery, how to make use of byproducts is an unavoidable theme. Sake kasu has value as a fermented food, and I thought it was a natural development for it to spread to uses beyond eating.
At the same time, to be honest, I was also anxious.
We had once considered developing cosmetics, but differentiating them was hard, people in the company said things you put on skin were outside our expertise, and we worried that a quality issue could affect the Masumi brand.
When I heard TOJI was starting from zero, at first I had no idea how far it could go. But when I saw the finished product, I was very surprised.
The package design and the product itself were both very good. Including the price range, it was designed so you could feel, "For this value, this price makes sense." It wasn't selling on buzz alone; it truly stood as a product. I felt sincerity in that.
And when it went on sale, it sold well.
Not an idea on paper, but something customers actually chose. Only then could I think, "This could be a new possibility for Masumi too."
Honestly, without your team, it would have been hard for us to connect to this kind of field. It's an idea that wouldn't have come from a brewery thinking alone, and we may not have had the courage to step forward. I felt there is value that is only born by working with people from outside.
Even bigger is the story of "experience" from here on.
Looking at the winery world, in the end fans from all over the world come to the place, eat, stay and spend time there, and fall in love with the whole region. Many brands grow that way. There is always an "experience" there.
From now on, I think what will matter for sake breweries too is not just making and shipping sake, but how to get people to come and experience it.
And that experience shouldn't be only for people who drink. It should be open to those who don't, so they can feel the culture of the land, the appeal of fermentation and the flow of time in a brewery without drinking. Whether we can design that will be very important for traditional industries to survive the next 20 or 30 years.
Using sake kasu is a great entrance for that.
By creating points of contact other than drinking, the value of a brewery reaches more people. In that sense too, I feel this project means more than just developing a new product.
The Next Ten Years: Growing the "Branches and Leaves" ⎯ Creating Freedom on Top of a Single Core
Ozaki:
Finally, what future do you envision for Masumi?
Miyasaka:
That's a difficult question.
But there are two things I feel strongly right now.
One is that I want more of our staff to be able to enjoy making and selling sake. Everyone works seriously now and is motivated. But I want positive energy, "doing it because it's fun," "trying because we want to make it better," to circulate naturally on the floor.
For that, we need to prepare ground where people can take on challenges: systems that turn failure into learning, room for proposals, a culture that values trying. Without those, people end up playing it safe.
The other is the shape of the Masumi brand's next growth.
Over these ten years, starting with the return to No. 7 yeast, we have run one big core through everything. To be honest, in a way I pushed it through with my own ego. I brought a strong will about what Masumi should be into the sake, the words and the brand.
But of course, there are limits to what I can do alone.
Now that a single core runs through it, I want to give everyone more freedom to decide what branches and leaves grow from it.
By branches and leaves, I don't just mean adding new products or projects.
It might be the range of expression in flavor, how we deliver it, or how we create experiences. Or it might be the way we work and the shape of the team itself. Because there is a single core of what makes Masumi Masumi, the branches growing from it should be all the stronger.
What's hard, though, is that "you're free to do it" is not the same as "you can do anything."
To protect what makes Masumi Masumi, you need to draw lines. But draw too many and the branches won't grow. Give too much freedom and the core gets blurry.
How to balance that is, I think, the hardest theme of the next ten years.
That's exactly why sharing the core comes first.
Who Masumi is and what value we want to deliver. Once everyone truly understands that common language, we create a state where each person can grow their own branches.
That is what I want to take on in the next ten years.
Finally
In the previous master brewer edition, Mr. Nasu spoke of wajo ryoshu:
the idea that sake is born from harmony.
What emerged this time from Katsuhiko Miyasaka's words was a perspective on how to nurture that harmony anew, not only on the brewing floor but also from the side of the brand and the organization.
Setting a single core by returning to No. 7 yeast, and shaping it into a form that speaks to the world.
And over the next ten years, growing many branches and leaves on that core.
The taste of the sake, how it is communicated, how it is experienced, and its people. The Masumi brand is now quietly beginning to spread.
Protecting what makes Masumi Masumi does not mean standing still.
It means having a place to return to, not in order to stay the same, but in order to keep changing.
That resolve seems to shape where Masumi stands today.
Quietly, but surely.
Masumi will keep moving toward the next era, confirming that single core as it goes.
(Written by Mie Ozaki)