Mr Honda takes Otaku-ism for sake to the next level, seriously. I don’t recall exactly what degree he holds but he’s super knowledgeable about cultivating sake rice (no doubt with Yamadanishiki as his specialty), and supposedly he still teachers/lectures on the subject at the university.
There are stories of him doing really out of the box things before competitors jumped on the bandwagon. So in a way he’s quite the pioneer in his field. One was that he was the first to come up with the super flat rice polishing technique, and came up with the machine and specs to do the job. Somehow that technology got picked up by Daishichi (or they commissioned them to help them with their own super flat rice polish machine), and Daishichi’s claim to fame is this technology which they claim to be their own… though this is all 2nd or 3rd hand information to be fair from industry folks. The most interesting tidbit I heard recently is that he adds katsuo bones (either crushed or grinded into powder) to mix into the soil to grow Yamadanishiki rice, with the aim to impart further umami flavors to the rice. Mori-san probably knows more on this (or perhaps @Starchtrade has heard more). Apparently he also has a super limited run of a 20 year aged sake, I want to say it is their top of the line Akitsu Junmai Daiginjo, carefully aged in sub zero temperatures. So perhaps a 1996 or 1997 vintage (coincidentally I saw the 1996 vintage online for sale in Hong Kong).
Yes, him and his crew are doing the rounds in California next month. There are at least two stops (both in Northern California) for sake related promotion/events.
Honda Shoten prides itself in researching and using the best of the best Yamadanishiki sake rice to brew their sake.
The concentration of these rice fields are spread across a few areas in Hyogo Prefecture, namely Kato City (west side formerly known as Yashiro), East side (formerly known as Tojo), North/North East side (Kami Tojo Area) and Miki City (Yokawa Machi). Together these fields make up what is called the Yamadanishiki rice field Special District A.
There are probably better and more detailed maps online, but my Google skillz aren’t Otaku enough.
So, as you can see, Tatsuriki or whoever is helping them do marketing, try to liken their appellation of high grade sake rice fields (and the differing qualities and flavors you get out of them) to terroir for wine, or someone calling them essentially the DRC of sake for comparison. It can be a little bit too much but it’s easy to see why that comparison was made.
There are quite a number of sake breweries that get their sake rice from these fields for their top of the line bottles, but even if using the supposed same rice, they don’t necessarily taste the same.
Tatsuriki’s exported top two bottles, Akitsu and Yokawa Yoneda, are named after the specific rice fields from which the rice for brewing originated from. Yokawa Yoneda is cultivated with organic fertilizers. Akitsu is seriously premium stuff, though I can’t say if that’s the pinnacle…but that bottle is super hard to top.
And yes they have different bottles using rice from different fields (but not necessarily all of them).
They have some fantastic looking labels too (here are some that are Japan only)
And that’s awesome that you got to meet Takeyoshi Honda himself! Wow. 
Although, which sushi restaurant were you going to next?
And yah, Maru-san was talking about the different grades of rice and how the Nihon no Sakura from Tatsuriki was using the highest grade possible. Interesting.
