Fushimi Sake District, Kyoto: Breweries, Tastings and Canals

What to see and taste

Gekkeikan Okura Sake Museum. Gekkeikan has been brewing in Fushimi since the 1630s, and its museum occupies one of its old brewery buildings. It walks you through the traditional process with wooden tools and vats, lets you try the well water used for brewing, and ends with a tasting. It is the best first stop, because it gives you the vocabulary for everything else you will taste.

Kizakura Kappa Country. A few minutes away, Kizakura's complex is more relaxed: a courtyard, a restaurant and a shop selling the brewery's sake alongside its own craft beer. The kappa, a mischievous river creature from Japanese folklore, is the brand's mascot, and you will spot it everywhere.

Fushimi Yume Hyakushu. Set in Gekkeikan's former head office building, this cafe and shop stocks sake from many Fushimi breweries and serves tasting sets, a simple way to compare several producers side by side.

Torisei Honten. A restaurant run by the Yamamoto Honke brewery in one of its old storehouses, serving yakitori with sake drawn from the brewery next door. It is popular, so arrive early for dinner.

The canal and the jikkokubune. The white-walled storehouses back onto a canal where flat-bottomed jikkokubune boats, modeled on the cargo boats that once plied these waters, run short sightseeing trips in season. Cherry trees line the banks in spring.

Teradaya. This old inn is famous as the place where Sakamoto Ryoma, a key figure of the late Edo period, was attacked in 1866. It stands close to the canal, near the Ryoma-dori shopping street.

When to go

Sake is traditionally brewed in the cold months, roughly October to March. A visit in that period gives you the best chance of catching the smell of fermentation in the streets and finding shinshu, new-season sake, on sale. Look for the sugidama, the ball of cedar leaves hung outside each brewery: fresh green means new sake has just been pressed, and the ball slowly turns brown as the sake matures. Spring brings cherry blossoms along the canal. Summer in Kyoto is hot and humid, so save outdoor walking for the morning and do your tasting in the afternoon.

Tasting tips

• Order a tasting flight (a nomikurabe set) where you can. Three small glasses side by side teach you more than one large one.
• Move from light and fragrant styles to richer, fuller ones.
• Drink water between glasses. In Japan it is called yawaragi-mizu, roughly "softening water".
• Eat as you go. Kyoto's tofu dishes, simmered vegetables and grilled fish suit Fushimi's gentle style.
• The legal drinking age is 20, and Japan's drink-driving rules are very strict, so leave the car behind.
• Many shops and tasting counters close by early evening, so start no later than early afternoon.

Plan your trip

Half a day is enough: begin at the Gekkeikan museum, walk the canal, try a tasting flight, and finish with dinner in the district. Fushimi also combines easily with Fushimi Inari Taisha, a short ride north on the Keihan line. Visit the shrine early, as in our Fushimi Inari sunrise guide, then spend the afternoon among the breweries. To compare the bolder style of the other great sake district, read our guide to Nada Gogo in Kobe.