Harada Sansha Junmai Muroka Kamizumi

Harada Sansha Junmai Muroka Kamizumi (原田酒造 無ろ過純米酒 純米上澄) is an unfiltered Junmai made with Hidahomare rice milled to 60% and slowly brewed at low temperature. Only sake brewers could enjoy the unfiltered top layer in the old days. Since it is unfiltered, it has a rich and ample taste with a subtle underlying ginjō aroma. Best enjoyed chilled with salt-grilled saury.

Harada Brewery is located in Takayama, Gifu Prefecture. Hida Takayama, also known as Little Kyōto, was a medieval castle town established in 1585 by the local Kanamori clan. Kanamori Nagachika (金森長近, 1524-1608), a vassal of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, built Takayama Castle. The eldest son of Kanamori Kashige, the second castellan of Takayama Castle, studied under Sen no Rikyu's son, Doan, and developed his own tea ceremony. The Sowa school had a significant influence on the culture of Hida Takayama. The Kanamori clan also established temples in the Higashiyama area, which they likened to Kyōto, and actively promoted various commercial and cultural activities.

After the Kanamori clan was transferred to Dewa Province in 1692, Hida came under the direct control of the Tokugawa shogunate. It was under Hida's direct control until the Meiji Restoration, absorbing Edo culture's influence. The fusion of the Kyōto culture nurtured by the Kanamori clan and the Edo culture nurtured as a tenryō (shogunal land), Hida Takayama has matured its own culture. The results of this cultural fusion are the gorgeous festival floats (山車 dashi) and the magnificent festival procession of over 1,000 people at the Takayama Festival.

Hida's local "Sansha" sake brewery started its brewing business in 1855 in Sannomachi (三之町). Utsueya Chōgorō (打江屋長五郎), the first head of the family and a village headman, was quick to pick up the brewing traditions of Nada and Fushimi and devoted himself to sake brewing. Sansha's brewing techniques have been honed for generations. While its sake is light, it has a rich taste that increases the intense flavour of rice using a unique winter brewing technique called Okuden Hida Ryūgen Tōkan Zukuri (奥伝 飛騨 流厳冬寒造り).