The work speaks for itself.
Nikado has been family-owned and operated since 1866.
Eight generations, one standard. This is how we got here.
A Special 160th Anniversary Collaboration with Maya Yoshida
The kanji for Hiji means sunrise. The town sits on an east-facing bay in Oita, Kyushu, known for its wide golden mornings over the water.
The light arrives early and quietly before the day begins.
This is where Nikaido was founded. The spring water, the soil, the warm humid air of Kyushu. All of it finds its way into the glass.
Nikaido is not a large company. Roughly fifty people work at the distillery in Hiji Town, many of them for decades. Everyone who joins learns the Nikaido way, and in turn teaches it to the next person.
Quality is measured the same way it always has been. By tasting.
The beginning
1866
Nikaido Shuzo is founded in Hiji-Machi, Oita, as a nihonshu (sake) brewery. The family’s long relationship with fermentation, with koji, and with the craft begins.
A necessary change
1949
Production shifts from nihonshu to shochu. Circumstances change, and with them, the direction of the company. Generations of koji expertise carry over.
The hard years
1960s
Sixth-generation president Akira Nikaido is among a handful of makers working with barley koji. The company is struggling, and he sets out to make a shochu that can see it through.
The breakthrough
1974
The breakthrough was barley koji. Akira was among the first to use it in shochu, and the first to build a product around it. The result: Clean, balanced, and light enough to drink all evening.
The original
1974
Nikaido Oita Mugi Shochu launches. The first shochu made entirely from barley. Japan takes notice. Oita becomes synonymous with barley shochu.
A new method
1970s
Sixth-generation president Akira Nikaido is the first to bring barley koji shochu to market. With it comes a new kind of shochu. Cleaner. More balanced. Easier to drink.
Word traveled
Late 1970s
Former Oita governor Hiramatsu carried 30 bottles on every trip to Tokyo, handing them to anyone who would listen. Word spread among tastemakers in japan.
Shochu Boom
1980s
Barley shochu was everywhere. Ginza clubs, neighborhood izakayas, living rooms across Japan. Oita became the center of barley shochu production. It started with Nikaido.
Holding the standard
1995
Masashi Nikaido takes over as seventh-generation president. The standard holds. As the world around him changes, he chooses not to chase it, but to protect what Nikaido has always been.
Reaching further
1995-2021
Masashi is the first in the family to advertise. He invests in television commercials and works to build the Nikaido name. The shochu stays the same. More people find it.
A step beyond
2022
Eighth-generation Yuichi Nikaido leads Nikaido somewhere it has never been. With the future of shochu in mind, and Nikaido’s taste at heart, the decision is made to share it beyond Japan.
Shochu can be made from dozens of ingredients. Sweet potato, rice, buckwheat, sugarcane. Each one produces a different spirit. Sweet potato tends to be full-bodied and earthy. Rice can be delicate and floral. Buckwheat is light and dry.
Barley shochu is clean, rounded, and easy to stay with. Smooth enough to drink all evening. Flavorful enough to hold your attention.
Oita is now the home of barley shochu. Nearly all of Japan’s barley shochu comes from this one prefecture. That started with Nikaido.
