TOJI × Sake Brewery Stories Vol.03: SUIGEI Brewing, Head of Production
Protecting and Evolving the Taste of SUIGEI: Masato Ueda, 33 Years of Facing Quality
As the sake market shrinks, SUIGEI, a sake brewery in Kochi, has achieved a dramatic V-shaped recovery and keeps growing in Japan and abroad. Behind its bold management reforms is a man who has protected and evolved the quality at its core on the brewing floor for 33 years: Masato Ueda, Head of Production at SUIGEI Brewing.
After studying biotechnology, he entered the world of sake brewing as if guided by intuition. Starting with yeast development, he took on every role, from blending and sales to serving as president when the company was in trouble, building both the organization and the taste of SUIGEI.
What Mr. Ueda has always focused on is one thing: the moment of delight when the sake reaches the customer's mouth. His carefully calculated design of sake for meals makes the most of Kochi's climate and soft water. And the "return to the origins of quality" he now champions for the next generation is also groundwork for sharing Japan's traditional culture with the world correctly.
In this interview, TOJI CEO Tamura asked Mr. Ueda about his unusual path, his philosophy of sake brewing, and his vision of a future that produces spaces and time. Echoing the vision "SUIGEI on dining tables around the world!" from Vol.04 with Mr. Okura, Head of the President's Office, this time we explore where SUIGEI stands from the front line of making things.
Leaping into the World of Sake Brewing on Intuition
Tamura:
Thank you for making time today. Beyond the background of the collaboration with TOJI, we'd like to hear about your own story as SUIGEI's longest-serving member, now in your 33rd year and Head of Production, and about SUIGEI's philosophy of sake brewing. First, could you tell us about your path so far?
Ueda:
Thank you. It's not much of a story (laughs). I was born in Osaka and moved to Kochi in junior high because of my parents' circumstances. I studied chemistry for five years at a technical college, and since it was the dawn of biotechnology, I transferred to Nagaoka University of Technology in Niigata and researched plant cell fusion and genes. But in the summer of my first year of graduate school, I suddenly thought, "This is too much, I'm done." I'm the type who acts on intuition, so I just quit and came back to Kochi.
Tamura:
From there, how did you come to join SUIGEI (then part of its parent company, Asahi Shokuhin)?
Ueda:
I thought food was where I could use my biotech knowledge, and then Mr. Okura's grandfather, the founder, called me in for an interview. I knew how good sake was from my time in Niigata, and thought that here, working with microorganisms, there was something I could do. So I decided on intuition. When I joined in 1993, we had about a third of the people we have now, and for the first year and a half I developed new yeasts in joint research with the prefecture.
From Yeast Development to Management: The Appeal of a Business Where Your Work Shows Up in Numbers
Tamura:
You spent your first year and a half developing new yeasts. How did you get from there to where you are now?
Ueda:
After yeast development, I moved to the product team, bottling and labeling, to understand where the sake goes. From there I became a blender, combining sake from different tanks to keep the quality consistent. Since I have tasted the finished sake continuously, I'm now the one on the team with the most experience of how SUIGEI's taste has changed over time.
Tamura:
So you grasped the whole picture of production on the front line.
Ueda:
Yes. But I didn't stop at making it. I also volunteered for behind-the-scenes work like cost calculations: how much we sell it for and how much profit we make, I built all the numbers. Later, Mr. Okura (now Head of the President's Office) picked me, saying it comes across better when someone who knows what's inside does the talking, and I led the sales division for about two years.
Tamura:
Even sales! You've truly covered every department. How did that lead to a management position?
Ueda:
It stayed turbulent after that (laughs). When we split into two sites, Nagahama-gura (head office) and Tosa-gura, running things remotely didn't work well, so I went in as plant manager of Tosa-gura. At the time we were run by three executives, but the one in charge of rice procurement retired, so Mr. Okura handled outside work and I oversaw both plants. Later, during a period when Mr. Okura stepped away, there was no one else to do it, so I took over as president for about three years.
Tamura:
You've really experienced so many departments. Now you're Head of Production.
Ueda:
Yes, I now oversee all of production, including development and the brewery store. The next generation of young craftspeople is growing, but there is still room to improve our management and checks as an organization, so until they are fully independent, I act as interim toji and carry final responsibility for the quality of the sake.
Tamura:
What has driven you to take on so many roles and lead SUIGEI for so many years?
Ueda:
There was a moment when my own assessment of a yeast I made or a sake I blended matched exactly the assessment of customers who paid for it. Feeling "I'm someone who's useful in this organization" meant a lot to me.
Through many departments, I saw customers find value in the liquid, the sake, that is the fruit of everyone's effort, and pay for it. I got completely hooked on the appeal of a business where the results show up right away in numbers.
SUIGEI's Character Is Its Firm Acidity: Sake for Meals, Calculated to Make the Sake, the Food and the Business All Good
Tamura:
Where do you think SUIGEI's character, what makes its sake brewing SUIGEI, lies?
Ueda:
Kochi is hot, so rice dissolves easily and fermentation moves fast, so the base is a dry sake with a crisp finish. Within that, SUIGEI's character is a firm acidity. The acidity resets your mouth so you can enjoy the food again. That synergy makes a sake for meals you can keep drinking glass after glass. On the other hand, we keep amino acids, which give umami, extremely low, because they cause off-flavors and fatigue. You can drink beer glass after glass, right? A sake that's good at first but gets heavy later is a problem, so we let the acidity and a little bitterness work within a gentle aroma, and we design it as a business too, so it can be enjoyed at a fast pace.
Tamura:
Good sake, good food, and good business too. It's very well thought out. Does Kochi's water, used for brewing, also greatly affect this taste?
Ueda:
Kochi has so much pure soft water that good water comes up wherever you dig. With hard water rich in minerals, yeast becomes active and fermentation is vigorous, but with soft water you can control the yeast closely and ferment for a long time. By leading the yeast, which makes more than 150,000 kinds of byproducts, while keeping it happy, you can draw out a rich aroma. So you can't cut corners, and you can't blame the water.
Sake Kasu Is a "Treasure": Bringing Its New Value to Bath Time with TOJI
Tamura:
This time, we made a Sake Kasu Bath Powder together through the collaboration with TOJI. At TOJI, we want to share the value of the ingredients and culture that breweries have cherished through the everyday time of the bath. What does sake kasu mean to you?
Ueda:
It's a treasure, good to eat and good to put on your skin. But across the industry, there was a big wall: it's hard to handle, including distribution.
So TOJI turning it into a powder for the bath is truly groundbreaking. You connected sake kasu, which had been hard to handle, to a new experience in the bath. It's an idea a brewery would struggle to come up with alone. This product contains as much as 50% sake kasu from sake made with Gin-no-Yume, the best seller at our Tosa-gura.
It's like soaking right in a tank of sake kasu. I think there's meaning in letting many people know the value sake kasu itself has, in a different form than before. So I believe it's our responsibility to communicate this value well and raise the everyday standard of value.
Creating Delight Through a Return to the Origins of Quality, and Sharing Japan's Traditional Culture with the World
Tamura:
Wonderful. Finally, please tell us what you want to leave for the next generation and about the future.
Ueda:
SUIGEI aims not just to sell sake, but to produce spaces and time under "Enjoy SAKE Life." Including people who can't drink, I want us to be a team that can create good times for our customers, through merchandise, cafés, this bath time, and, taken to the extreme, even futons.
Precisely because the whole industry is in a tough situation, I think what sake brewing needs now is a "return to the origins of quality." This isn't about going back to the old room-temperature sake in a glass. It's about returning to the root of the technique unique to sake, multiple parallel fermentation, and reconfirming what is truly good about us. It's a step to know ourselves and build solid ground for the next leap. At my age, I believe it's my responsibility to pass this firm ground on to the next generation.
SUIGEI is also expanding globally, but going overseas doesn't mean we should simply sell flashy things. What matters is exporting Japan's solid traditional culture itself, culture and all. If our own origins and foundation aren't solid then, we'll end up conveying a strange version of the culture to people abroad. That's why I want to return to the origins of quality and share Japan's traditional culture with the world with overwhelming confidence and responsibility.
Buy Sake Kasu Bath Powder SUIGEI here
New value born from sake kasu, for your everyday life.
Please enjoy Sake Kasu Bath Powder SUIGEI, born from the collaboration between TOJI and SUIGEI Brewing.
