Yamagata Sake Brewery Marathon

The Yamagata Sake Brewery Marathon is a distinctive approximately half-marathon-length running event held across Tendo and Yamagata City in Yamagata Prefecture, Japan. Inspired by France’s famous Marathon du Médoc, the event combines running with one of Yamagata’s most celebrated cultural traditions: sake brewing. Rather than focusing primarily on finishing times and competition, the Yamagata Sake Brewery Marathon is designed as an experiential race in which runners travel between historic breweries, experience the landscape and culture of Yamagata, and celebrate their finish with locally produced sake. The 2026 event will be the third edition of the race.

The course begins at Tendo City Central Park and travels south from Tendo toward central Yamagata. Along the way, runners pass historic sake breweries and sake retailers that serve as checkpoints before continuing through Yamagata City and past Kajo Park, the site of the former Yamagata Castle and one of Japan’s designated Top 100 Castles. The race eventually finishes at Yamagin Kenmin Hall, immediately beside JR Yamagata Station.