Sake country on the lower Chikugo river. Brewing water from 200m underground, rice from the plain the river built, barrel cedar floated down from Hita. Eighty-five breweries in 1898; sixteen remain.
The sake of Jojima was made by the river.
Jojima lies on the lower Chikugo River, in Kurume, Fukuoka. There is a reason the breweries gathered here. The brewing water is drawn from two hundred metres underground - the Chikugo's groundwater. The rice is the large-grained rice of the Chikugo plain, grown in soil the river laid down. The cedar for the barrels came from Hita, upstream on the same river, floated down. And the sake went out by river too. Water, rice, wood, road: one river handed over everything sake-making needs.
Brewing began in the Edo period - Tomiyasu Eijyu in 1745, then others through the Bunsei, Kaei and Bunkyu years. At its height, in 1898, there were EIGHTY-FIVE breweries here, producing 52,000 koku. People spoke of 'Nada in the east, Jojima in the west.'
Sixteen remain today across Kurume and Okawa. Each February the white-walled brewery street fills with people and the new sake is poured. Eighty-five became sixteen - and the river still runs the same way.
Shops and makers will be listed here as we verify them, one by one.
Details are based on official sources (checked: 13 Jul 2026) and may change — please check the official page before you go.