Abunotsuru Shuzo, a sake brewery in Abu Town, Yamaguchi Prefecture, took part in a show by fashion designer Kentaro Kameyama at New York Fashion Week's 2027 spring/summer season, held in September 2026. Ryutaro Miyoshi, the brewery's sixth-generation brewer, walked the runway himself, and a "yon-to-daru" — a large wooden sake barrel he carried all the way from Abu Town — appeared on the runway as a striking piece of fashion worn by a local model.
Rather than simply introducing sake for people overseas to drink, the collaboration translated the brewery's own symbol into an entirely different form of expression: fashion. For Abunotsuru Shuzo, it marked a new way of sharing sake culture with the world.
The brewery also thanked Kentaro Kameyama for the opportunity, along with Makoto Okamoto, head chef of the restaurant La BOMBANCE, who helped bring the collaboration together, and everyone else involved in the show.
From "Drinking Sake" to "Wearing Sake Culture"
The centerpiece of the runway appearance was the yon-to-daru, a barrel long seen as a symbol of the sake brewery and a familiar sight at Japanese celebrations, where it is traditionally opened in the kagami-biraki ceremony.
Miyoshi carried the barrel himself from Abu Town, Yamaguchi, to New York, where a local model wore it and walked the runway as part of the show.
Rather than presenting traditional Japanese culture as-is, pairing it with contemporary fashion offered a new angle from which audiences could encounter sake culture.
The Sixth-Generation Brewer Steps Onto the New York Runway
Alongside the barrel, Ryutaro Miyoshi, Abunotsuru Shuzo's sixth-generation brewer, appeared on the New York runway.
Rather than sending sake alone overseas, having the brewer who makes it stand on a global stage gave audiences a chance to feel a connection not just to the sake itself, but to Japan, to Abu Town in Yamaguchi Prefecture, and to Japanese culture more broadly.
From Abu Town to the World, as a Brewery That "Brews Smiles"
As interest in sake grows overseas, Abunotsuru Shuzo sees its role as more than exporting sake alone. The brewery views sake as a doorway that can lead people to take an interest in the surrounding land, its people, its history, and its craftsmanship — Japanese culture as a whole.
Just as the yon-to-daru and its sixth-generation brewer walked a New York runway this time, tradition changes into new forms of expression when it meets other cultures.
Abunotsuru Shuzo plans to keep stepping outside the boundaries of sake, engaging with food, fashion, art, and other forms of culture, with the aim of being a brewery that "brews smiles" for people in Japan and abroad alike.
Abunotsuru Shuzo is a sake brewery with 125 years of history, set on the coast in green, rural Abu Town, Yamaguchi Prefecture. Ryutaro Miyoshi, the sixth-generation brewer, was born in Abu Town in 1983, studied architecture in Tokyo, and worked as a designer at a major apparel company before leaving that career in 2008 to train at four breweries in Chiba, Saitama, Gifu, and Aomori. He returned home in 2014 to revive the family brewery, which had been dormant for 34 years, and by 2016 was brewing under its now-signature "Miyoshi" label, which has since built a following among sake fans in Japan and overseas.
