Amakusa Syuzo is the only remaining shochu distillery in the Amakusa area of Japan. Established in 1897, our main product was Ike-no-tsuyu, a shochu made from sweet potatoes which had a strong, distinctive taste. This premium shochu was sold for over 80 years. However, with the change in trends in the shochu industry, the barley and rice shochu with their lighter, refreshing taste became more popular in the 1970s.
So in 1980, we stopped producing sweet potato shochu and started producing rice shochu and barley shochu instead. The barley shochu boom in Tokyo helped stabilize the distillery's business - and proudly in 2006, after 26 years, our sweet potato shochu Ike-no-tsuyu has made a comeback.