The Asahi Shuzo

"Dassai" literally means "otter festival". It is a word that was used long ago in our region, Yamaguchi Prefecture, as many otters were frolicking in the nearby rivers. Otters would lay out the fishes they caught on the shore, almost as if they were showing them off – as one would do during a festival. A famous haiku poet named Masaoka Shiki took "Dassai" as a pen name because he would often scatter his reading material all over his room like otters spread out fish. More importantly, Masaoka revolutionized Japanese literature during the Meiji era. And because we want to convey this notion as well, as part of our philosophy of sake crafting. Dassai's sake theme is "Making sake is making dreams: opening a new era of sake". This means that we shall never be obsessive about traditions or handcrafted techniques. Instead, we want to revolutionize sake crafting and make sake like no one has ever tasted.