Nishi gō

【English】
Nishi-Gō (Nishi area)

One of the areas making up the “Five Regions of Nada” (Nada Go-go), and also used as a term indicating the sake brewery district of Kobe City’s Nada Ward. Go (郷, long “o”), means an administrative unit of several villages. When sake brewing first flourished in Nada in around 1770, the area was part of the district known as Kami Nada (上灘, “Upper Nada”). With the Shimo Nada (下灘, “Lower Nada”) and Imazu regions, it was part of the core of the sake industry of Nada.

Further reorganization in 1828 saw the Upper Nada area divided into three Western, Central and Eastern Districts, and the Nada Ward region around the Shinzaike and Oishi areas became part of the Western (Nishi) District of Upper Nada. From 1886 this Western District became the contemporary Nishi Go.

This Western District of Upper Nada previously belonged to the former Uhara (菟原) District, made up of the Iwaya, Oishi, Shinzaike, Kawahara, Gomo (long second “o”) and Hieda villages.

In those days, the brewing district extended to the Ikutagawa region of Lower Nada (in the Chuo Ward of Kobe City today), but now only reaches as far as Togagawa River in Oishi in contemporary Nada Ward. This region is called Nishi Go.

Labels brewed in contemporary Nishi Go include Sawanotsuru (沢の鶴), Kinpai (金盃) and Fukumusume (富久娘).

 

Links to the various breweries are below.

 

Sawanotsuru： http://www.sawanotsuru.co.jp/

Kinpai：http://www.kinpai.co.jp/

Fukumasamune：http://www.oenon.jp/