Learn Sake & Sommellerie of Sake in Niigata

Honest level: Beginner -> Kikisake-shi — ask the school exactly how far that goes in the time you have.

Masters & lineage

• Toji guild lineage (master brewers)

Why Obata Shuzo - Gakkogura

• ★ 4.5/5 · 37 reviews on Google (via Wanderlog) ↗

— don't take my word, check it yourself

Gakkogura is Obata Shuzo's working brewery built inside a closed 2010 elementary school, led by fifth-generation owner Rumiko Obata (one of Japan's few female brewery chiefs), running a hands-on week-long sake-brewing program that has hosted over 150 participants from around the world.

Schools in Niigata

Checked by hand against each school's own course pages. No school paid to be listed.

• Niigata Sake no Jin (Niigata Sake Brewers Association)
  Niigata Sake no Jin annual festival with tastings from around 90 breweries and sake seminars
  Niigata Sake no Jin is the annual event the Niigata Sake Brewers Association has run since 2004, gathering roughly 90 prefectural breweries and over 500 sake alongside local food, stage programs and sake seminars.
  https://www.niigata-sake.or.jp/en/activity/sakenojin/
• Imayotsukasa Gakkogura brewery school
  Gakkogura Sake-Making Program: One-Week Course and 20-Day Course
  Gakkogura is a converted former school on Sado Island operated by Obata Shuzo (Manotsuru) where residential sake-making courses of one week or 20 days teach koji-making and three-stage brewing hands-on alongside the brewers, with rice-field visits and tasting seminars.
  https://www.obata-shuzo.com/home/gakkogura/experience2022.asp
• SSI (Sake Service Institute) certification partners
  SSI International Kikisake-shi (Sommelier of Sake) certification course and exam
  The Sake Service Institute certifies sake professionals through its Kikisake-shi qualification, delivered as a multi-day course covering production, tasting and service with a graded exam available in English via authorized partner schools.
  https://ssiintl.jp/

The credential

International Kikisake-shi (Sake Sommelier), up to WSET Level 3 Award in Sake · Certifying body: SSI (Sake Service Institute) / WSET (Sake program)

A recognised qualification an outside body stands behind is not the same as a certificate a school prints itself. We name which it is — you should ask the school the same.

Also for Sake & Sommellerie of Sake

What I check before I send you anywhere

I'm Arnaud. I cook for a living, and I've spent fifteen years on the water — so I know the difference between a real school and a good-looking website. I built the Atlas because I got tired of the second kind. Here is what a place has to clear before it goes on here, and what I'll tell you straight when it doesn't.

• The craft is actually alive there. A working scene, with people who do this every day — not a demo put on for visitors.
• There's a real teacher behind it. Named, still practising, and certified where the craft has certificates.
• The credential is what it claims to be. A state diploma and a certificate a school prints itself are not the same thing. I check which, and I say which.
• I tell you how sure I am. Most pages here are verified by hand. A few say "still checking" — I'd rather admit that than pretend.
• Nobody pays to be here. No commission, no selling the trip. The order on this map is the strength of the community, never the size of the wallet.
• If I wouldn't send a friend, it isn't on the map.