10 Minutes with the Volcano Brothers: On Putting Kagoshima on the Coffee Map

In Kagoshima, Japan—a city of active volcanoes with a coffee tradition older than most people realize—two baristas are building something worth knowing about.

BY VASILEIA FANARIOTI
SENIOR ONLINE CORRESPONDENT

Photos courtesy of Kensuke Sakashita and Mutsumi Kodama

I was in Tokyo last June when I first saw them perform. They took the stage at The Barista League in Shimokitazawa as The Volcano Brothers—Kensuke “Ken” Sakashita and Mutsumi Kodama, representing Kagoshima. Their concept was the city itself: its active volcano Sakurajima, its fermentation traditions, its local black tea and coastal ingredients. They made you feel like you were missing something by not having been in Kagoshima.

Kensuke runs QUILT COFFEE, one of Kagoshima’s most respected specialty roasteries and cafés. Mutsumi runs A Way to Coffee, a mobile coffee van he launched after discovering specialty coffee while working in Brisbane, Australia, and making the deliberate choice to return home and build something there. They are competitors in the technical sense and collaborators in every meaningful one. 

They host the Kagoshima Volcano Brewers Cup together annually, practice for competitions on Zoom at midnight, and are quietly changing what specialty coffee looks like in a city that rarely comes up in international conversations—which is, as it turns out, part of the point.

Barista Magazine: You run separate businesses yet collaborate closely. How did that partnership develop?

Ken: Through our day-to-day work, we gradually realized that we share a similar direction. Kensuke’s experience working overseas and my experience in coffee competitions complement each other well. Bringing those strengths together—through competing and organizing local events—allows us to share what we are doing with a wider audience and bring energy to the coffee community here.

Mutsumi: In my first year of business, I was brave enough to ask Ken—someone I didn’t know personally—if we could host an event at QUILT COFFEE. That’s how it started. After that, we got closer and began building the Volcano Brewers Cup together. Then one day, Ken told me he wanted to compete at The Barista League with me. I didn’t take it seriously at first. I was completely focused on growing my business… but here we are. Everything we went through in preparation made me believe there is no limitation where there is strong will.

What is the coffee scene in Kagoshima actually like, and what are you trying to build within it?

Ken: Kagoshima’s coffee scene has been shaped for decades by traditional kissaten (Japanese tearoom) culture and by pioneers who helped build the early specialty coffee movement in Japan. More recently, young baristas and roasters have been starting their own businesses, and a culture of serving specialty coffee is gradually spreading. What we need now is to raise and maintain high standards of both quality and service.

Mutsumi: There are barriers we’ve faced and need to overcome. Kissa culture is deeply embedded here, convenience store coffee is everywhere, and our job is to show people what’s possible without dismissing what already exists. What Ken and I are building together is to improve local baristas’ skills, knowledge, and experiences—giving them access to competition and community that usually only exists in Tokyo or Osaka. Helping local baristas awaken their passion might seem like the longest route, but we believe it’s the fastest and most efficient way to build something that lasts.

Your performance was built almost entirely around Kagoshima. How did you decide to make the region itself the concept?

Ken & Mutsumi: There are talented baristas with incredible skills all across Japan. But we live in Kagoshima. We felt we were in a unique position to share the beauty and character of this city with genuine affection, precisely because we live and work here. Expressing our identity through our performance felt like a responsibility—almost a mission. We genuinely wanted people who watched us to become interested in Kagoshima and, eventually, to actually visit. Just as food and local culture can motivate people to travel, we wanted to show that local baristas can also be a reason.

What does it mean to build something in a place that isn’t a traditional coffee capital?

Ken: There is great meaning in building a business based on what you believe in, right where you live. I also want to demonstrate that a meaningful career in coffee is possible outside the major cities, because if we can show that, it will help keep the local coffee movement growing.

Mutsumi: For me, it’s not about where I run my business. I’ve intentionally chosen a harder way and I don’t regret it. The fact that this isn’t a major coffee capital doesn’t make me change what I do. If anything, it makes my purpose more meaningful and more rewarding.

What do you hope someone reading this in London or New York or Sydney takes away?

Ken: Japan has incredible character and diversity outside of Tokyo and Osaka. The coffee you are served in Kagoshima might be a natural-process Ethiopian. But the flavours and emotions you experience while drinking it can be something that only Kagoshima can offer—the climate, the people, the local ingredients, a recommendation from a barista about where to go next. We hope that a coffee experience here can become one of the reasons people choose to visit.

Mutsumi: Every coffee culture is built on its local characteristics. Kagoshima has the best wagyu in Japan, fresh seafood, remarkable produce, and beautiful nature within a thirty-minute drive. We are the people who live next to an active volcano with ash falling on us daily. With everything that nature has given us, we believe we can create a distinct coffee culture that nowhere else can imitate.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Vasileia Fanarioti (she/her) is a senior online correspondent for Barista Magazine and a freelance copywriter and editor with a primary focus on the coffee niche. She has also been a volunteer copywriter for the I’M NOT A BARISTA NPO, providing content to help educate people about baristas and their work.

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