Meikun (Matsuyama Shuzō)

Matsuyama Shuzo has been brewing sake under the Meikun label since the mid-twentieth century, and its story threads through some of Fushimi's most historically charged spaces. The brewery now operates inside the Taisho-gura building, which sits on the former Shimazu clan lodgings in Fushimi, the same place where the celebrated reformer Sakamoto Ryoma sought refuge during the Second Teradaya Incident of 1866. The name Meikun translates roughly as: in praise of the wise monarch who creates a bright world for all. The brewery became part of the Gekkeikan group in 1958 and expanded production significantly through the 1960s.