Sakurao Hiroshige Collection｜Seven Lucky Gods on a Sherry Cask

2026.2.17

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I finally got hold of the Single Malt Japanese Whisky Sakurao Sherry Cask HIROSHIGE COLLECTION I’d been waiting for, so here it is.

Honestly, just looking at this bottle, I feel the luck in this bar going straight up.

■ A power spot you can drink? The luck packed into this label

Look at it!

It carries Utagawa Hiroshige’s Seven Lucky Gods on a Treasure Ship — a woodblock print by one of the great Edo-period artists.

The Seven Lucky Gods bring prosperity in business, long life and good fortune. Put those gods aboard a treasure ship and you have about as concentrated a symbol of happiness and prosperity as Japan offers.

And it comes with a folding fan in a wave pattern, meant to be displayed.

The fan’s shape widens as it opens, and the pattern is read as fortune that widens the same way.

The endlessly repeating waves are said to carry wishes for descendants, and for something that goes on forever.

Sakurao has stood in Hiroshima since 1918, taking the calm sea air off the Seto Inland Sea.

Whisky-making here had stopped once. A team that knew nothing brought it back from zero, carrying tradition and innovation with them. Their road, and what they’re carrying into the future, is right there in the waves.

You don’t only drink this one. You look at it.

It would make a lovely thing to take home from Japan.

■ Since 1918, and where Sakurao stands now

Founded on the Hiroshima coast in 1918, Sakurao has held to one thing: tradition and innovation, together.

When they built the current distillery, whisky-making had been suspended and no one on staff carried the know-how. They started from zero.

What they’ve done since is remarkable.

Recently they released SOGAINI, an affordable line, and it got people talking.

That a distillery of that size can put out a fully Japanese whisky at that price, consistently, tells you something about how far ahead they were thinking.

And Sakurao doesn’t stop at making spirits.

• Protecting local resources: clearing the wild hamago (beach vitex) grounds on Miyajima, and cultivating a forest of scarce juniper.
• Working with Hiroshima barley: in 2023 they began making whisky with malted barley from Sera, and signed a regional development agreement to go with it.

They say plainly that using and protecting local resources is their duty.

Hiroshima can be proud of them.

■ With a second distillery opening, does Sakurao become legend?

And the second distillery everyone’s been talking about — Sakurao Forest Site — is due to open within the year.

Once it does, the whisky made at this small original distillery becomes scarcer, and stands somewhere quite particular.

The way Yamazaki set off a fever worldwide, whisky drinkers might one day pour into Hiroshima from everywhere.

That’s the future I let myself imagine, and I enjoy it.

■ The official tasting notes

Poured out, a deep amber with red in it. Raisin on the top note; in the mouth, a faint sweetness like bitter chocolate.

Ripe strawberry and apple sweetness against spice, a light salinity, and a trace of peat that carries long on the finish.

At 60%, it’s surprisingly soft on the palate, easy to drink. That gap is the best part.

Sold in limited numbers at airport duty-free and the distillery visitor centre only, so it’s a hard one to find — come and taste the luck, and the Hiroshima in it, here at the bar.

Hiroshima whisky is about as interesting as it gets right now.

Every encounter is meant to be. Welcome to the world of Rum & Whisky.

【A note from Mika】 There is little official information about this Hiroshige Collection, so parts of this article are my own reading and interpretation. Please take it as such.

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Whisky and rum taste better when you know the hearts behind them.