Guest Shift
Kazuma Oikawa
Kanegasaki Herb Liqueur Distillery, Iwate
A distiller behind the bar
Two evenings, two venues
For two evenings at the end of August, Kazuma Oikawa — founder of Kanegasaki Herb Liqueur Distillery in Iwate — stands behind the bar himself.
He is unusual among Japanese producers. He grows the herbs, harvests them, distils them, and then mixes them himself. The distance between the field and the glass, in his work, is almost none.
From Iwate to Tokyo, and back
The path
Born in 1993 into a farming family in Iwate, Oikawa moved to Tokyo and worked across several corners of the food and beverage industry before looking abroad.
In Canada and the United States he encountered small distilleries built entirely around local agriculture — operations where the surrounding land, rather than a recipe book, decided what was made. The idea stayed with him.
- 1993Born into a farming family in Iwate
- 2015Studied and worked in Canada and the United States
- 2017Opened a bar in Tokyo, working with herbs and vegetables he cultivated himself
- 2019Selected as one of ten national finalists, DIAGEO WORLD CLASS Japan Final
- 2021Returned to Iwate; founded K.S.P and Kanegasaki Herb Liqueur Distillery
Bartending, agriculture and Japanese botanicals — held together by one pair of hands.
Kanegasaki Herb Liqueur Distillery
Kanegasaki, Iwate Prefecture
Founded in 2021, the distillery works from herbs grown on its own land. Oikawa oversees the whole line — cultivation, harvest, product development, production and sales — a range of responsibility rarely held by a single person.
Its releases include the WAKA series, AKA ONI, and a range of crèmes built on Japanese fruit and botanicals.
