Yanagita Koma: A Barley Shochu From a Family Distillery Since 1902

Some distilleries make everything. Yanagita makes barley shochu, and has been narrowing in on it since 1902.

The Distillery

Yanagita Distillery is in Miyakonojo, Miyazaki, on Kyushu. It's family-run and now in its fifth generation under Tadashi Yanagita.

Their own framing of the work is simple: the point of their shochu-making is how to draw out barley's latent power. Everything else follows from that. They propagate microorganisms slowly, in a deliberately stable environment, rather than pushing fermentation.

That's a small-distillery approach. It doesn't scale well and it isn't meant to.

Koma

Koma means colt — a young horse.

It's made from barley grown in Miyazaki, using spring water from the Kirishima basin, and distilled under vacuum rather than at atmospheric pressure. Around 24–25% ABV.

Vacuum distillation lowers the boiling point, which means fewer of the heavier compounds carry over. You lose some weight and richness; you gain clarity and lift. For a spirit built to showcase a light grain, that's the right trade.

Aroma: Bright, with a clean barley fragrance

Taste: Light and smooth, with a subtle sweetness

Finish: Gentle, lingering

Why We Pour It

Because barley shochu is the easiest entry point into the category and this is a very good one.

If sweet potato shochu is where the character and the arguments are, mugi shochu is where people start. Koma is clean enough to drink all night and specific enough to be worth paying attention to.

Yanagita became the first shochu maker in Miyazaki to take the top prize at France's Kura Master competition, in 2023, for their barley shochu Aokage.

How to Drink It

Mizuwari or on the rocks. It's light enough that soda works well too, and a mugi shochu highball is an underrated drink.

Oyuwari in winter brings out the grain.

Pair It With

It goes with everything, which is the point of a good mugi shochu. Yakitori, karaage, tebasaki, ramen, handrolls.

Try It at Juraku

Yanagita Koma is on the shochu list at Izakaya Juraku, Lower East Side. If you don't know where to start with shochu, start here.