he former Kikuchi Suigen Elementary School, where the halls used to be filled with the happy voices of children, is now filled with the sweet aroma of steaming rice.

Bishonen began in 1752 at the order of Lord Hosokawa Shigekata and was famed throughout all of Japan. The company changed its name to Hinokuni Shuzo and after a series of complications, ended up quitting the sake business before being taken over by its current owner.

Bishonen Co., Ltd. was founded anew in 2013. This was the same year when Kikuchi Suigen Elementary School, after 137 years of education, closed its doors as a school forever but saw new life as a brewery. Converted classrooms line one side of each hallway, so each of the sake making processes can be done in a single straight line. Rice steamers and coolers are placed in the cafeteria, where the rice is washed and steamed. The neighboring principal’s and nurse’s offices had their walls and ceilings covered in cedar and now act as the koji room. The teachers’ room is now filled with enormous tanks. Filling and labeling lines run down the halls. On the outside, the building still looks like a school, but the interior is anything but. It is here where a young group of brewers work to build the new Bishonen brand.

“Kikuchi is one of Japan’s few rice-producing regions. It has great water from Kikuchi Gorge. Our employees are Kikuchi-born, our water and rice are from Kikuchi—we put everything Kikuchi has into our sake. We want to make sake the world will admire.” And with Bishonen’s Junmai Ginjo Kikuchi and Seiya, made from Kikuchi rice, winning awards at France’s Kura Master Sake Fair and their Daiginjo Kikuchi winning gold at the US National Sake Appraisal (the world’s oldest sake competition outside of Japan), it looks like Bishonen is ready to take the world’s stage. “We make fruity sakes that anyone can enjoy. We will continue to refine our style with an eye on global trends.”