Hoyo
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Country of Origin: Japan
Location: Tomiya City
People: Kei Uchigasaki, President | Kei Uchigasaki, Toji
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Uchigasaki Brewing Company was founded in 1661, and its Hoyo label has been in continuous production for over 350 years. It is the oldest brewery in Miyagi Prefecture. Today, a small crew of six works through the winter months using almost entirely traditional tools and techniques to produce several locally sold labels.
The brewery can be found in Tomiya City located some 400km north of Tokyo and just north of Sendai, the largest city in the Tohoku region. The Uchigasaki family forefather, Oribe Uchigasaki, helped to establish Tomiya as a post town for the Oshu Highay which connected Edo (today’ s Tokyo) and the Tohoku region in 1620. The Tomiya post was commissioned at the behest of Sendai’ s founding lord, Masamune Date. Oribe's son Sakuemon Uchigasaki founded the Uchigasaki Sake Brewery in 1661.
The origin of the name of HOYO: HO means a phoenix in Chinese. YO means sunlight in Chinese. In Chinese folklore, when a phoenix sings in the sunlight in the morning of New Year’s Day in the eastern sky, disaster is avoided and good luck appears. Based on this Chinese folklore and the family's wish for good luck, they named our sake HOYO.