Aged Five Years Beneath Kobe: 'Zui Sake 2020 Ne' Returns in Limited Second Release from May 18

There is a place beneath Kobe where time moves differently.

The traffic above the ground does not reach it; neither does the sound of ships from the bay. Inside the long brick-walled passage, what you hear is the occasional drip of water from the ceiling. The air sits at about 15°C all year, summer and winter alike.

The place is called Minatogawa Zuido—a brick river tunnel completed in 1901, running beneath the streets of Kobe.

A single bottle of sake has been resting here for the past five years: a kimoto junmai brewed in 2020.

That sake—Zui Sake 2020 Ne Aged 5 years old—returns to sale on Monday, May 18, 2026 after its first release sold out. Limited stock.

A Meiji-era engineering job that put a river underground

So why is there a brick tunnel under Kobe in the first place? The story goes back to 1868, the year the Port of Kobe opened to foreign trade.

The young port had a weakness: its geography. The Rokko mountains drop almost straight into the sea, and every heavy rain sent the Minatogawa river hauling sediment down toward the harbor, slowly silting it in. To keep the port working, the river had to be put somewhere else.

The chosen answer was bold: cut a tunnel through the rock under Mt. Ege and route the river underground. Built by private hands led by the Fujita-gumi and completed in 1901, Minatogawa Zuido became Japan's first full-scale river tunnel, and is today a registered tangible cultural property.

The river was rerouted long ago, but the brick passage is still down there—a steady 15°C year-round. A second cellar, you could say, hidden under the city.

Why a shipping company brews sake inside a tunnel

The project—Minatogawa Zuido Cellared Sake: "Zui"—is led by Hayakoma Unyu Co., Ltd., a marine shipping company founded in 1885 and tied to Kobe Port for 140 years. Why would a shipping firm get into sake? Because, the company says, "Minatogawa Zuido is the place that protected the Port of Kobe and laid the foundation for the city's growth." Resting sake in the tunnel is their way of carrying that memory forward.

Brewing is handled by Kobe Shushinkan, a long-established brewery in the Nada-Gogo sake district. Their kimoto junmai, made with the soft water that filters out of Mt. Rokko, then ages inside the tunnel through the four-way partnership that also includes the Minatogawa Zuido Preservation Society and Hyogo Prefecture.

The inside of the tunnel is slightly warmer than a typical sake cellar. That tempo lets the sake mature slowly into something rounder, edges softened. It is not a refrigerated warehouse—it is a brick passage carved more than 120 years ago, repurposed as a cellar. A space dug to protect the port and the city is, now, weaving a piece of Kobe's history into a single bottle of sake.

A 2020 bottle, pulled from the dark after five years

This second release is from the lot first laid down in 2020—the year of the rat (ne) in the Chinese zodiac, which is where the bottle's name comes from. After five years inside the tunnel, the resulting sake is Zui Sake 2020 Ne Aged 5 years old.

The label carries calligraphy of the character "子 (ne)" by the internationally known ceramicist Shiro Tsujimura. It comes from his first-ever attempt at brushing the twelve zodiac signs; from that set, the year of the bottle's birth was chosen. Tsujimura visited Minatogawa Zuido in person, then took up the brush.

Out of that same visit came Kuro-sakazuki—a black sake cup he threw on the wheel specifically for this release. The product is sold either as the bottle alone, or paired with the Kuro-sakazuki cup.

Sales overview

Quantities are limited. The first release closed with a strong response, and the second is likely to move quickly too.

Links

• Brand site: zuisakefromkobe-ko.jp
• Official store: zui-online.square.site
• Instagram: @zui_kobe
• Hayakoma Unyu Co., Ltd.: hayakoma.com

Sources: Hayakoma Unyu Co., Ltd. ( PR TIMES ) / Brand site "Hyogo Minatogawa Zuido Cellared Sake Zui"

Drinking alcohol is permitted from age 20 in Japan. Drunk driving is prohibited by law. Drinking during pregnancy or while breastfeeding may harm the fetus or infant.