Depicting Sake Breweries — Reflections on the “Sake Brewery Sketches” Exhibition

I have sketched 1,358 sake breweries across Japan. Of these, I personally visited around 900; the rest were based on photographs taken by friends or provided by the brewery owners themselves. The project took roughly ten years to complete, but it was truly a joyful undertaking.

I would like to share what inspired me to begin sketching sake breweries in the first place.

I have loved sake since I was young. One day, I noticed how fascinating the designs of the bottle caps were. Moreover, the caps are made of surface-treated steel sheet — the very material I specialized in professionally.

I felt compelled to collect them, and began buying issho-bin bottles of sake. By the time my collection reached around 200 different caps, I realized that I could no longer expand it without visiting breweries in person.

Around that time, I reached retirement. As a pleasant diversion from the research projects I had just begun, I visited a nearby brewery — Kubota Brewery in Sagamihara City.

When I arrived, I found an old kura building surrounded by large trees. It struck me as a picturesque scene. Having enjoyed painting as a hobby since my youth, I immediately realized that sake breweries would make compelling subjects.

That visit marked the beginning of my brewery sketching journey. I started locally in Kanagawa Prefecture, sketching one brewery a day directly in front of the buildings, then buying a bottle of sake before heading home.

Gradually, I expanded my travels to the Kanto and Tohoku regions.

Many breweries featured towering old trees or kura buildings more than a century old, making them ideal subjects for sketching.

However, due to various site constraints, not every drawing can stand alone as a fully composed tableau. It may be best to view them primarily as documentary records.

Sadly, some of the breweries I sketched have since closed. The number of sake breweries in Japan is declining rapidly, and I find this deeply saddening.

For that reason, I believe these sketches hold value as records — preserving the appearance of sake breweries as they once were.

I would be delighted if viewers could sense, even slightly, the distinctive atmosphere each brewery possesses and the subtle differences that make each one unique.

Painter Chuichi Kato