Located in the Fushimi District of Kyoto, Gekkeikan Okura Sake Museum offers a wealth of information about the history of Gekkeikan Brewery, the brewing process and tools used and a small tasting/sampling area at the end of your tour.
How to get there
From Kyoto Station, you can take the Kintetsu Kyoto Line for 15 minutes to Momoyamagoryo-Mae Station (7 stops), after which there is a 10 min walk. As I'm writing this (2023), it costs 300 yen one way.
Another option from Kyoto Station is the Nara line to Momoyama Station. It takes 12 minutes (4 stops) after that there is a 15 min walk from Momoyama Station to Gekkeikan Okura Sake Museum. This option costs 200 yen one way.
Gekkeikan Okura Sake Museum
The Museum is open from 9.30 until 16.30. When you purchase your ticket (600 yen), you receive a Museum Guide/Map which allows you to explore it at your own pace. Tours are available but they are only in Japanese.
After you go through the entrance, there is a little hall where a video is played on a loop, explaining how sake is made.
The next room is the Sake Exhibit - where you can see displayed old pictures, Sake vessels, labels and everything else related to the history of Gekkeikan Brewery and the evolution of its products throughout time.
Next to the Sake and Gekkeikan Exhibit, there is a door leading to an Inner Garden. I found it very useful to get a breath of fresh air after trying to absorb all the information in the Exhibit.
The next area to explore was the Sake Production Exhibit, where you have a decent amount of tools and materials used in sake brewing. Their whole collection has more than 6000 items, and about 400 of them are on display. Pretty impressive.
Past the Production Exhibit, you will find the Well, from which you can enjoy a fresh drink of water - the underground water here is renowned for its quality. As you go past the well you can find the courtyard where you can see the sake containers used for fermentation.
After you finish touring the museum you can sample 3 types of sake - included in the ticket price. You can see the options I had available, below. I'm not sure if this changes at all or not. I can't say I'm an avid sake drinker, but I am curious, and I can honestly say that the 3 I've tried at Gekkeikan Okura Sake Museum were absolutely delicious.
Once you're done with this part, the next area to explore is, as usual, the gift shop. After the tasting, I honestly wanted to buy everything (as usual). My perpetual struggle is trying to pace myself with buying all the souvenirs, and considering I spent a whole month in Japan, that was quite a difficult task.
I bought a few of them, as you can see, all delicious, all making me want to go back to Japan.
Visiting Gekkeikan Okura Sake Museum was a very good experience for me, so, if you're looking for things to do in Kyoto, I would highly recommend you try it.
I hope life is treating you well.
Take care.