Hinokami Distillery (火の神蒸溜所), the whisky-making arm of shochu producer Satsuma Shuzo (薩摩酒造) in Kagoshima Prefecture, has released HINOKAMI NEW BORN #3, its smokiest bottling yet and the final entry in a preview series it has run since starting whisky production. The 200ml bottle goes on sale nationwide on October 2, 2026, at 3,850 yen, limited to 3,000 bottles.
Satsuma Shuzo is best known for the shochu brands Satsuma Shiranami and Kamino Kawa, the latter aged in white oak barrels since 1988 by an in-house cooperage, one of only around 60 barrel-making operations left in Japan. The company obtained a whisky manufacturing license in December 2022, began malt whisky production at Hinokami in February 2023, and added a continuous still for grain whisky by November of the same year. It is part of the Honbo Group and drew on technical support from sister distilleries Mars Komagatake, Tsunuki and Yamaga to get started. Hinokami sits in Makurazaki, at the southern tip of Kyushu, making it mainland Japan’s southernmost whisky distillery.
The “New Born” series has tracked the distillery’s new-make spirit as it develops toward an eventual single malt release, expected in 2027 or later. Where #1 and #2 kept smoke in the background, #3 pushes the phenol level to 20ppm, the highest in the series, using bourbon-cask-matured malt bottled at 50% ABV. Chief blender Minori Momota built the release around the smoke of Makurazaki’s dried-bonito (katsuobushi) curing houses, a local industry as old as the town itself, aiming for what the distillery calls a balance of “smoky and elegant.” Tasting notes describe toasted marshmallow and lily on the nose, tropical fruit and buttery grain on the palate, and a long, smoky finish likened to the embers of a summer festival.
What this means outside Japan
New-make previews like this rarely leave Japan, but they matter to overseas drinkers for the same reason early single-cask samples from Chichibu or Kavalan once did: they are the clearest signal of what a young distillery’s eventual core range will taste like. Hinokami’s decision to lean into local katsuobushi-smoke character, rather than importing a generic Islay-style profile, gives it a terroir story that international buyers increasingly look for in new Japanese whisky. With Satsuma Shuzo’s shochu already exported and its cooperage skills feeding directly into cask management, Hinokami’s single malt debut is one to watch once it reaches export markets in a few years.
Why this matters
Hinokami is not an isolated shochu-maker’s side project. Satsuma Shuzo sits inside the Honbo Group, the same family of companies behind Hombo Shuzo and its long-running Mars whisky operation, which has held a whisky manufacturing licence since 1949 and runs established distilleries at Shinshu and Tsunuki. Satsuma Shuzo itself only entered whisky in 2023, but it leaned directly on that group experience, drawing technical support from sister distilleries Mars Komagatake, Tsunuki and Yamaga to get Hinokami running, and Hinokami’s build-out has been described as part of Satsuma Shuzo’s push toward the company’s 100th anniversary in 2036. That framing matters: the New Born series is not a rushed cash grab on a trend, it is the visible early stage of a project timed to a decade-plus horizon, which is also why Satsuma Shuzo is willing to publish three separate preview bottlings years before any core single malt exists to sell.
The choice to chase katsuobushi smoke rather than an imported Islay template is also a deliberate bet on place. Makurazaki’s dried-bonito curing houses are as old as the town itself, and chief blender Minori Momota built NEW BORN #3 specifically around that local smoke character rather than a generic peated style. For a distillery sitting at the literal southern tip of mainland Japan, with no older whisky identity to inherit, building flavour around a local food industry instead of borrowing Scotland’s vocabulary is how a brand-new site tries to earn a terroir story from day one.
For readers outside Japan
HINOKAMI NEW BORN #3 is a 3,000-bottle, 200ml domestic preview release with no export plan or international retailer confirmed, so readers outside Japan cannot currently buy this specific bottling, and the eventual core single malt is not expected before 2027 at the earliest. Satsuma Shuzo’s shochu brands, including Satsuma Shiranami, are already exported, but that distribution network has not yet been confirmed to carry Hinokami whisky. Anyone outside Japan offered a bottle of this specific release through a reseller should treat the listing with caution, since the stated 3,000-bottle run was sized for domestic sale only.
Readers who want to taste something from the same corporate family while Hinokami matures have a real option: Hombo Group’s existing Mars whisky line, including Mars Komagatake and the Tsunuki distillery’s releases, already reaches international retailers. See our guide to Hombo Shuzo and Mars whisky and Tsunuki distillery guide for what is actually available today, and our coverage of Mars Komagatake’s peated sherry-cask single malt for a bottling with a similarly smoky profile that readers abroad can realistically source.
Source: Japanese Whisky Dictionary (Japanese)
Primary sources: Satsuma Shuzo company profile (Japanese) and Hombo Group corporate history (Japanese).