Matsui Brewery was founded by Mr. Jiemon Matsui in 1726. The brewery is conveniently located in the center of Kyoto city close to Kyoto Imperial Palace.
The brewery owner himself brews sake with the assistance of a small team. Their signature brand is "Kagura" and you can taste wide variety of different style of "Kagura" from Junmai to Dai-Ginjo sake. Their sake is aim to maximize the “taste of rice” to create a unique blend of sweet, sour and bitter notes.
Mr. Shigeki Matsui became the 15th president of the company in 2019. Currently, Matsui Brewery is the purveyor to the many famous temples and shrines in Kyoto (as shown in the picture).

Kyoto’s two oldest shrines, collectively known as the Kamo shrines, lie in the upper reaches of the Kamo River. These are the Kamigamo-jinja and Shimogamo-jinja, the “upper” and “lower” Kamo shrines, respectively. Shimogamo shrine, northeast of the Kyoto Imperial Palace, is held to protect the palace from malign spirits coming from this direction, considered inauspicious according to onmyōdō, Japan’s traditional esoteric cosmology.
The creator and guardian of the city, Kamotaketsunomi-no-mikoto, is enshrined in the main sanctuary of the shrine, along his daughter Tamayorihime-no-mikoto, a mythical figure with her own repute. Together these deities welcome and protect all who visit the shrine, from Kyoto and beyond.
The Aoi Matsuri, formally known as the Kamo Matsuri, takes place every year on May 15. As the shrine festival for Kamigamo Shrine and Shimogamo Shrine, this is one of the three major festivals of Kyoto, along with the Gion and Jidai festivals.