Zuiyo Co. was founded in 1867 in Kawashiri, a town that prospered under the rule of the Hosokawa as a collection and storage point for rice harvests. Zuiyo was the first brewery to transition from akazake, the only alcohol produced in Kumamoto at the time, to sake.
The Kumamoto Prefecture Sake Institute was founded here in 1909 to improve sake brewing techniques in Kumamoto (it was later relocated to Shimasaki, Chuo-ku, Kumamoto City in 1922), making Zuiyo a very important player in the history of sake in Kumamoto.
