The Historical Attraction of Sake Brewing inthe Brewing Industry
The town of Shirakawa was the castle town of Komine Castle, and it was also alodging-station of the Oshu Kaido. As a small city for local industries where samurais, merchants and craftsmen gathered and people and goodswere collected and distributed, it was a lively area where various industries prospered.Even today, onecontinuing tradition is the sake brewing industry. This is because Shirakawa was blessed with good quality and abundant groundwater in the Abukuma River basin, which originates from the Nasu mountain range. Shirakawa’s feudal lord,Matsudaira Sadanobu,put great effort into promoting new industries, but especially the sake brewing industry, where chief brewers were invited from the Kyoto‐Osaka area to teach sake brewing methods and commissioned sakes such as “Shironishiki” and “Sekigawa”.To this day, along the old Oshu Kaido, long-established storehouses of the sake-brewing industry such as Oya Chukichi Honten, Senkoma Brewery and Shirakawa Brewery continue to create sake with love and passion.
In addition, the miso and soy sauce brewing industry is also popular, and 5 stores have shops along and around the old Oshu Kaido roadway, and their traditions has been passed down.The mellow aroma of sake, and the fragrant aroma of soy sauce and kojicombine with the traditional atmospheres of the stores, and form a good historical attraction which is reminiscent of the past when the brewing industry was flourishing.
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