Taragawa’s production site on Miyakojima

Miyakojima, Okinawa, Japan

Taragawa

Distilling an island’s character.

Photo: Taragawa

Founded
1948
Location
Miyakojima, Okinawa, Japan
What they make
Awamori, rum, gin, imuge
Selected products handled by WAIN99
Taragawa MAKUGAN rum / MIYAKO GIN

Awamori ageing in a cave on Miyakojima.

Taragawa began in 1948 as Taragawa Shuzosho in the Gusukube area of Miyakojima. It has made awamori there ever since, on land blessed with groundwater.

About 150 metres south of the distillery is Uipyaa Upusu Gura, a storage cellar built in a cave. It lies about 5 metres underground and runs about 60 metres, and the temperature and humidity barely change through the year. Customers can leave awamori they have bought here to age, with a wooden tag marking an anniversary.

Alongside its traditional work, Taragawa keeps trying new things. Working with fellow producers on other islands, it revived imuge, a sweet potato spirit that disappeared at the end of the Meiji era, for the first time in about 100 years. In 2019 it added a spirits production facility and now also makes MAKUGAN rum and gin.

  • Aged awamori (kusu) matured in the Uipyaa Upusu Gura cave cellar
  • Kuon, a long-aged kusu, won Best of Class at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition two years in a row
  • Revived the sweet potato spirit imuge after about 100 years
  • Miyakojima rum also shipped to France

WAIN99 / SELECTED DRINKS

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