Komasa Jyozo (Kagoshima)

During our last Japan visit, I made a quick detour down to Kagoshima to visit shochu distilleries. As shochu director of the shop, I've gotta keep up with what's going on in Kyushu! Yoko and I went to Kagoshima nearly 10 years ago and while I have fond memories of that trip, this time around it absolutely blew my mind. Kagoshima is so rich in history and craftsmanship of everything from shochu, tea, katsuobushi, and crafts. There is so much cool stuff going on, within the varied landscape, and the people and atmosphere is just so laid back. I highly encourage y'all to visit; it's now in my top 3 fave destinations in Japan!

My first stop was Komasa Jyozo, the impetus of my Kagoshima trip, as I am featuring two bottles this month from this distillery for Shochu Gumi. Since 2023, I've been trying to get a hold of these bottles and finally am releasing them this quarter as Shochu Gumi exclusives. So naturally, I wanted to see where they were made.

The distillery is in the small town of Hioki amidst a backdrop of stunning greenery and steaming mountains. The air is salty as the sea is not far. Here, Komasa has been producing spirits since 1883 – today, sweet potato shochu is their main business, but they do also make barley shochu, gin, and their newest project Kanosuke Whisky is just down the road. More on that later!

Large road-side sign for Komasa Jyozo

A large cement hole where trucks unload the sweet potatoes. Komasa process 37.5 tons of sweet potatoes daily. The sweet potato brewing season is August-December (so they were not making it during my visit)

Sweet potatoes tumble down here and are rolled on the belt for processing and inspection

Pictures of diseased sweet potatoes. In the last decade, Kogane Sengan potatoes, the most common type used for imo shochu, has succumbed to disease found in the soil. This has been a major disruption in the industry and all breweries in Kagoshima are hurting from this.

Loved this board of that lists all the farmers with the photos, according to what was delivered that day. This is so if Komasa has any complaints about the potatoes, they know who to call.

Examples of white, black, and yellow koji – all which are used to make different bottles at Komasa.

Different rice used for koji. They make 10 tons of koji daily.

The still room. Komasa makes 25,000 isshobin (1.8L) bottles daily.

One of two styles of stills at Komasa. This one, with the slimmer chimney, was used for The Pink. The slimmer chimney creates a more refreshing style of shochu. The one behind this still has a wider chimney, which was used for The Green, producing a sweeter shochu.

This still is on its side and is used to produce strong flavors, usually made with black koji.

Measuring ABV in real time.

Storage tanks.

What we saw above is Komasa's more industrial factory for making their everyday shochus. They also have a smaller facility specializing in their handmade shochus, using older, more traditional shochu-making equipment.