Imazu gō
- 【English】
- Imazu Gō (Imazu area)
- 【Japanese】
- 今津郷
One of the areas making up the “Five Regions of Nada” (Nada Go-go), also indicating the sake brewery district of the Imazu region of Nishinomiya City. Go (郷, long “o”), means an administrative unit of several villages. When sake brewing first flourished in Nada in around 1770, the area was part of the then Muko (武庫) district. In those days, Lower Nada ( Shimo Nada,下灘), and Upper Nada ( Kami Nada, 上灘 ) together with Imazu were referred to as 二灘三郷 ( ni Nada, san Go, “two Nadas and a go” ). However, after Upper Nada was divided into its Western, Central and Eastern Districts in 1828, the three Districts of Upper Nada, along with Lower Nada and Imazu, came to be collectively known as the “five go of Nada” – Nada Go-go.
The Nada of that day differed slightly from its modern contemporary. Between 1828 and 1885, the Lower Nada district, which had been included, was removed, and Nishinomiya is now included.
Imazu Go is home to what is said to be Japan’s oldest wooden lighthouse, the “Imazu Lighthouse” (今津灯台).
Labels brewed in contemporary Imazu Go include Ozeki (大関), Ogimasamune (扇正宗) and Kinshika (金鹿).