The old house has survived 145 winters.
The distillery building is a Japanese-style building with solid beams, but it has survived the winters in one of Japan's heaviest snowfall areas, and the weight of the snow had caused the entire building to lean. There was a suggestion that it would be faster to tear it down and rebuild, but I thought it would be more interesting to leave it as it was. . It was a tough choice, but I'm glad we kept it and renovated it. The demolition was done by myself and a group of friends who came to help, and the construction was done by a local construction company because they had to know about snow. My partner runs a building materials company, so we had a lot of good test materials to help us out."
I wanted to show the beams and roof as they were, but the health department wouldn't allow it, so I made a box out of white wood inside the building. We call it a house within a house.
The table in the entrance space is a DIY project by Segi. I've always loved collecting old iron legs and such," he says.
Orange balm and other herbs grown in-house in the herb garden in front of the distillery. The various herbs collected determine the taste of the craft gin.
