The Spirit of Japan: Passing Down The Tradition Of Shochu In The Modern Era

Our guests are Stephen Lyman and Joseph Overbey who have produced the documentary The Spirit of Japan . It is the story of the Wakamatsu family, who have been making the traditional Japanese distilled spirit, shochu, at their Yamatozakura Distillery in Kagoshima Prefecture since the 1850s. The duo follows the life of Yamatozakura’s 5th generation toji/master distiller Tekkan Wakamatsu and how the distillery’s tradition is being passed down from the 4th generation toji and Tekkan’s father Kazunari Wakamatsu. The film is beautifully shot and captures many aspects of Tekkan’s career, life with his family and the shochu industry. In this episode, we will discuss how Joseph and Stephen got involved in Yamatozakura Distillery, what they want to communicate to the audience through the film, gifts and challenges of succeeding a traditional family business, what is happening with the Japanese shochu industry right now and much, much more!!! See Privacy Policy at and California Privacy Notice at .

You can listen to The Spirit of Japan: Passing Down The Tradition Of Shochu In The Modern Era online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

The Spirit of Japan: Passing Down The Tradition Of Shochu In The Modern Era is an episode from Japan Eats by Heritage Radio Network.

This episode is 00:46:53 long.

This episode was published on Jul 14, 2025.

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