“Beyond Sake”
Beyond Sake is a long-term photographic project by Japan-based sake professional and writer-photographer Cindy Bissig, documenting craft communities through an intimate focus on sake breweries and the people who sustain them.
The work centers on the collective life behind the drink: kurabito at work, the shared rhythm of the brewery, and the quiet transmission of knowledge across generations. Tradition appears not as nostalgia, but as a living practice - shaped by repetition, experience, and adaptation. Within this space, change naturally unfolds: new generations entering the kura, women taking active roles, and emerging expressions such as craft sake and doburoku redefining what nihonshu can be.
Here, nihonshu is revealed as more than a beverage - it is an environment, a discipline, and a shared responsibility. The images offer a portrait of continuity and dedication, grounded in daily labor and human presence, and shaped by the people who carry this craft forward. Providing a window into a hidden community whose effort to keep an industry that is so deeply tied to every aspect of Japanese culture alive.
About the Breweries
Established in 1675, Masuda Tokubee Shoten is one of Kyoto's oldest sake breweries. It has been a family business for 350 years, with the current CEO Jun Masuda being the 15th generation.
The company produces sake under the brand name ‘Tsukino Katsura’, based on the same ideology that has been maintained since the company's founding.
Last year, the brewery celebrated its 350th anniversary. They have been pioneers in the sake industry, both with invienting Nigori Sake as well as their extensive aged sake portfolio, and we are all in luck as their sake is available worldwide.
Founded in June 2020, Kono Hana no Brewery (木花之醸造所) is a pioneering craft sake brewery in Tokyo’s Asakusa district, notable for being one of the city’s first dedicated craft sake producers focused on doburoku.
Named after Konohanasakuyahime, the blossom princess and goddess associated with Mount Fuji and cherry blossoms, the brewery is distinguished not only by its all-female brewing leadership and team, but also by its commitment to handcrafted processes — including producing its own koji and celebrating doburoku as a vibrant expression of Japan’s rice-to-ferment tradition.
