Tama no Hikari Sake Brewery

Tamanohikari Sake Brewery has a deep connection with Kumano Hayatama Taisha, one of the Three Grand Shrines of Kumano in Wakayama.

The beautiful name “Tamanohikari” (“Shining Jewel”) was bestowed upon the brewery’s founder, Rokuzaemon Nakaya, by the head priest of the shrine, to which he was devoted. It carries the wish that the spirits of the deities Izanagi-no-Mikoto and Izanami-no-Mikoto might shine brightly, reflected in the sake itself—“a jewel that shines with sacred light.”
It is rare in Japan for a sake name to be formally granted by a Shinto priest.

“The sacred sake offered to the gods is inseparable from the shrine itself. ‘Tama’ signifies a shining spirit, and the name evokes the radiant soul of sake. It is truly a noble name,” says Ueno Akira, Chief Priest of Kumano Hayatama Taisha.

This spirit lives on in every bottle of Tamanohikari—born of human hands, yet guided by an unseen power beyond human wisdom. It is a sake that honors both nature and the divine.