Full of Hokkaido botanicals,
Craft gin from Shakotan finally released!
<Part 1>

Shakotan Spirit has started operations in the town of Shakotan in north-west Hokkaido, known for Cape Kamui and Shakotan sea urchins.We follow Shakotan Spirit's challenge to create a new botanical culture from Shakotan that goes beyond gin.

writer：Ryoko Kuraishi

Mr Iwai talks about the appeal of Hokkaido's botanicals in the red Ezo spruce forest.

Visit the Shakotan Peninsula in "Shakotan blue"!

On the Shakotan Peninsula, which juts out into the Sea of Japan, gin is made using botanicals from Shakotan and other parts of Hokkaido.
Such an initiative was launched five years ago.


The town of Shakotan, which receives as many as one million tourists a year but has a population of just over 2,000, began "making a craft gin that symbolises the Shakotan Peninsula" as a measure to revitalise the region and create a local community.


The project is led by Hirofumi Iwai, whose day job is as a consultant in the agriculture, forestry and fisheries industries.
He became involved in the project as a result of his university days, when he specialised in urban planning and regional revitalisation, and his fieldwork based in Shakotan.

Distillery Shakotan Blue, equipped with a Holstein distillation machine.

'To begin with, I was given the task of creating a new industry on a large 90 hectare piece of disused farmland.


When we were discussing the project plan with outside experts, Yasuko Smokoyama, a woodwork designer living in Sapporo, suggested that we could make botanicals for gin in this forest, which has a mixture of coniferous and broad-leaved trees and a similar topography and climate to Scotland.


I had never thought of making a craft gin," laughs Ms Iwai, but she was moved by the grandiose approach to gin production from the production of botanicals.


'It would draw attention to the rich vegetation in the area and bring dreams to farmers and foresters not only in Shakotan but also in Hokkaido.
We felt this project had such significance."

The walls of the distillery are lined with spirits of various botanicals.

Botanicals that speak for the nature of the Shakotan Peninsula.

Although he has connections with farmers and producers all over the province from his career, he is a complete novice at brewing.
He started by doing gin-related research and building a team to assemble a recipe.


'In the first year, I travelled with Mr Kemuriyama to distilleries in Scotland, London and in Japan.
As we learnt more about the history of gin and how it is made, we were able to formulate a hypothesis for the recipe we wanted.


Finally, we started to select the botanicals.


With the cooperation of Takashi Hamada and Kentaro Kawade, who are involved in vegetation environment surveys in Hokkaido, we shortlisted approximately 150 botanical species native to the Shakotan Peninsula and Hokkaido, from which we narrowed it down to a further 30 species.
After two years of joint research with the Hokkaido Forestry Experiment Station and the Sake Beverage Research Institute in Hiroshima, we finally settled on a baseline after repeated test distillations.

Collection of red spruce shoots (top row, left and right).The shoots are dried in a dryer to extract the aroma.This is then distilled to produce a single botanical spirit of red spruce.

The botanical that is the key ingredient in the Shakotan Gin recipe is the 'tree of Hokkaido', the red ezo pine.
It is an evergreen coniferous tree that grows wild widely in Hokkaido, and the Ainu people called it 'the goddess of the forest', a very Hokkaido tree.


Only the shoots, which give off a deep orangey odour when dried, are picked for distillation.
Picking the shoots also contributes to forest conservation.


Other herbs include seven species of home-grown herbs, such as Ezo mandarin oranges with a refreshing, clear tangerine fragrance, the rare Yachi willow (Ezo yamamomo), which is designated an endangered species in some areas, the Ooba kuromoji and the kitakobushi, which are unique to Hokkaido, as well as the yarrow, which the Ainu people have used as a medicine for many years.Seven home-grown herbs were also used, including the sawtooth violet (yarrow), which has been used as a medicine by the Ainu people since ancient times.


The resulting first release, Hi no Hou KIBOU, is a complex blend of juniper berries, Hokkaido hops and lush red Ezo spruce, with a richness reminiscent of a deep forest.


You can also detect the bitterness of Ezo mandarins and spicy Ezo mountain peach.The subtle sweetness is derived from the northern kobushi and the Oba kuromoji.

The first and second releases in June were well received and sold out; pre-orders for the third will begin on 1 July.

The bottle is decorated with a Shakotan blue flame.
The 'fire' in the brand name 'Hi no Hou' was named after the fact that distilled spirits are called 'fire sake' in the first place and that the Shakotan Peninsula has always had a strong connection with fire, as the land was formed by volcanic mountain building activity and the traditional 'Tengu firewalking' is held here in summer.


The botanicals of the earth, extracted by fire, are being sent from this peninsula to the world.With a tailwind in our sails, we push forward and into the future.
The brand name and icon express this wish.


'There are still botanicals and flavours that claim Shakotan and Hokkaido.
We would like to change the blend and create a gin with a different character from 'Hi no Hou KIBOU', and we would also like to work on herbal liqueurs and absinthe", which makes his dreams grow even bigger.


The second part introduces Shakotan Spirit's future development.
What are the unique and unprecedented projects they have their sights set on?


Continued in Part 2.