Kito Hoists Support Sake Brewer

Aug. 11. 2025

A reader recently contacted us after spotting a Kito electric chain hoist in a TV program on sake brewing. We immediately called the featured brewer so we could write about them, and were happily invited for a visit. On an alley in central Tokyo we located the Tokyo Port Brewery, in a four-story building on a small lot of just 22 tsubo, about 790 square feet, producing sake with lots of care.

They built this microbrewery by remodeling a residential building. The shady alley location and fully air-conditioned building is ideal for sake brewing year-round.

“In this tiny building we wash the rice on the third floor, and the following preparatory processes, including fermentation, happen on the fourth floor. The alley was too narrow for a crane truck, so moving large volumes of uncooked rice to the third floor was a challenge. When I saw a Kito electric chain hoist at a trade show, I said, “This is it!” and installed it on the fourth floor. To raise bags of rice to the third floor, we altered the floor of the second-floor balcony to open and close.” (Master Brewer Yoshimi Terasawa)

Our predecessor was Wakamatsuya, a brewer with a history of about a century. When that went out of business, Shun’ichi Saito, a seventh-generation master brewer, revived it in 2016.

The brand name Edo Kaijo (‘open castle’) for Junmai Ginjo Genshu (sake made from highly milled rice) was reportedly chosen by Wakamatsuya at the end of the Edo period, when the government surrendered the castle without bloodshed.