Matsui The Hakuto: A Tottori Gin Named After a Skinned Rabbit

The Hare of Inaba is one of the oldest stories in Japanese mythology, and it takes place in what is now Tottori.

A white rabbit tricks a line of sharks into forming a bridge so it can cross to the mainland. It gloats before reaching the end, the last shark tears off its fur, and the rabbit is left raw on the beach until a passing deity tells it how to heal.

Matsui Shuzo named their gin after that rabbit.

The Distillery

Matsui Shuzo distills in Kurayoshi, Tottori, better known for their whisky, which is what most people encounter first.

The gin is proofed with soft groundwater from Mount Daisen, the volcano that dominates the prefecture. Botanicals are macerated in neutral spirit and then distilled in a Portuguese alembic pot still.

The Botanicals

The signature is nashi, Japanese pear, and Tottori's most famous product. The prefecture is pear country the way Kagoshima is sweet potato country.

Around it: juniper, coriander seed, orange peel, yuzu peel, Japanese ginger, green tea, cherry blossom and black pepper. Nine botanicals in the standard release.

Nashi is a difficult thing to put in a spirit. It's delicate, watery, and more about texture and crispness than aroma, the opposite of a loud botanical. Building a gin around it is a real constraint to accept.

What It Tastes Like

Soft and slightly sweet, with the pear reading as a clean, crisp fruitiness rather than a jammy one. Green tea and sakura give it a floral middle, and the black pepper and yuzu keep the finish from going flat.

There's a Premium expression with fourteen botanicals as well, which was named World's Best Contemporary Style Gin at the World Gin Awards in 2025.

How to Drink It

A gin and tonic with a slice of pear if you want to lean into it, or with yuzu peel if you'd rather lift the citrus.

It's soft enough that a martini shows it well, and it makes a very easy highball.

Pair It With

Light and clean. Handrolls, salmon avocado, crispy rice, agedashi tofu.

Also good with karaage, the pear does the job apple does next to fried pork.

Try It at Juraku

Matsui The Hakuto is on the gin list at Izakaya Juraku, Lower East Side.