Miyazaki Shuzoten, a brewery in Kimitsu, Chiba Prefecture, has won a Platinum Award at Kura Master 2026 for its Junmai Daiginjo "Salmon Musubi" — the brewery's first time taking the top honor at the Paris-based competition.
The award was announced on May 11, following a judging session held on April 27 at Pavillon Ledoyen on the Champs-Élysées. Founded in 2017, Kura Master is a sake competition judged entirely by French food and beverage professionals. The 2026 edition, marking the tenth anniversary, drew a record 1,252 entries.
What it takes to earn Platinum
The judging panel includes Meilleurs Ouvriers de France (MOF) title holders, head sommeliers from five-star hotels, staff from Michelin-starred restaurants, and wine journalists. Entries are scored out of 100 in a blind tasting, the same format used for wine. Only sake scoring 93 or above earns the Platinum rank.
What sets Kura Master apart is its criteria: the judges aren't just asking whether the sake is well made, but whether it belongs at a French dinner table, alongside the wines French diners already know.
A sake built for salmon
As the name suggests, Salmon Musubi was designed to pair with fatty salmon dishes. The brewery aimed for a balance between a deep umami core and a fresh acidity that lifts seafood — built specifically with dishes like salmon marinade and carpaccio in mind.
One unusual choice: the brewery skipped traditional sake rice and instead used Tsubusuke, a variety grown for eating, cultivated and polished on its own farm. The philosophy is that the sake exists to serve the meal, not the other way around — and that thinking extends all the way back to which rice goes into the tank.
Salmon Musubi will be available in 300ml (1,500 yen) and 720ml (3,300 yen) bottles, with shipments starting in early June.
A 160-year-old brewery, reborn in 2023
Miyazaki Shuzoten has been brewing in Kimitsu for 160 years, but it entered a new chapter in autumn 2023 when it joined the Anou Holdings group and a younger generation took over. The brewery calls this period its "second founding."
Water comes from Kururi, a source named one of Japan's 100 Famous Waters of the Heisei era. Rice is grown on the company's own farms in Chiba and Hokkaido. Alongside its traditional local label Mine no Sei, the brewery has been developing modern, lower-alcohol sake and showing at trade fairs abroad.
CEO Sho Tonami said the award gives the company strong confidence that its pursuit of "quality that resonates with food and crosses borders" has been validated at a global level, and signaled that exports and overseas expansion will pick up from here. Whether a sake designed specifically for salmon can find its audience in Paris will be worth watching.
