Asamai Shuzo Company was established in 1917. Soukou Kakizaki, the founder of the company, named the brand Amanoto inspired by an old poem based on a Japanese myth. Amanoto means Heavens Door which is symbolized by the Magatama, a stone used for a necklace in the myth, pictured on the label. Amanoto's brewery is located in Akita in the snowy, northern part of Japan and they are the smallest of Akita's 47 breweries. Being such a small producer, everything used in their sake making is truly local. Melted mountain snow creates rivers leading into the Yokote basin known for its fertile land. In the summer, they use the river water for raising rice for sake. Some of the water seeps under the basin and springs out near the brewery at the Biwakansen Spring, in the winter this is used for brewing. That same water that raises the rice in the summer brews the sake in the winter.