Junmaishu Kashin

Not only the color, but also the taste is so sweet and sour that it is hard to believe it is sake. It has a fruity taste as if it contains plum or acerola juice, a soft and light smoothness, and a low alcohol content, making it popular among those who do not usually drink sake and those who like fruit sake. The pink color of the sake is naturally produced by the action of red sake yeast (pink yeast), and no coloring agents are used.

Hanakami is a pink sake that was named after the novel "Hanakami" by the fourth-generation brewer, Utsunomiya Shigeaki, who wrote a 12-page letter to author Ryotaro Shiba, pleading with him to name this flower-colored sake after the novel. Shiba kindly agreed with the request, sending a handwritten postcard. The novel "Hanakami" tells the story of the Meiji Restoration patriot Omura Masujiro and Philipp Franz von Siebold's daughter, Kusumoto Ine. The brewery's location in Unomachi, where Ine trained as a doctor under Ninomiya Keisaku, a disciple of Siebold, also has a connection to the novel.