Founded in 1805, Kamisugi Sake Brewery uses all rice grown in Aichi Prefecture, pursuing the creation of distinctive, rich local sake. While winning contests is important for a sake brewery, they were skeptical of the idea of similar sake being brewed all over the country in order to win awards. In pursuit of the ultimate in authentic local sake, they stopped using Yamada Nishiki, the king of sake rice, which they had previously sourced from Hyogo, and have been using only rice grown in Aichi Prefecture for over five years. While the struggle with Aichi's distinctive sake rice was endless, they were ultimately successful in achieving the remarkable feat of winning an award at the National New Sake Tasting Competition using an Aichi variety. They will continue to produce unique sake.