Niigata Sake Masters' Gathering

Niigata Seishu Tatsujin Kentei (Niigata Sake Master Certification Test), which assesses testees' knowledge of Niigata sake, was held for the first time in Niigata City in March this year. The successful testees have been certified as do no tatsujin (bronze masters). This certification test is planned to be held every year. Next year, they will certify gin no tatsujin (silver masters).

On the second day of this month, a party named "Niigata Seishu Tatsujin no Tsudoi" (Niigata Sake Masters' Gathering) was held in Niigata City for all the bronze masters, and I participated the party because I have also been certified as a bronze master. I needed to pay 5,000 yen as a membership fee and the trip to Niigata cost me quite a lot of expenditure, but I determined to participate the gathering because I have good acquaintances in Niigata and foods of Niigata in winter are quite attractive.

In addition, if I can get translation jobs concerning sake-making industry in Niigata, such a situation will also be favorable for me. I thought I could probably have some talks and make myself known to some key persons in the Niigata sake business.



Since I am a tall guy (188 cm) and, in addition, I was wearing kimono during the party, I seemed to attract attention from those in the venue. I was even interviewed and filmed by some local TV staff. If you are a show-off, it is a good idea to wear kimono when appearing in public.

Although I am not sure whether my kimono helped people get interested in me, I could talk with some persons from sake breweries in Niigata Prefecture and a person from the prefectural municipality, and we exchanged business cards. So, the gathering was worth participating to me. They told that they were preparing a guidebook of Niigata sake in English, and I expect they will actively promote Niigata sake in the global market in near future. I believe that a person like me who enjoys sake and have ability of language translation will be useful for them. If I can have a translation job regarding sake and can introduce sake to people in the world, it would be quite an enjoyable job for me as a sake lover.



Niigata sake was formerly not as popular as it is now. In the time when sake brewing technology was not so advanced, fermentation control of sake was very difficult if soft waters were used because soft waters did not help yeast and other microbes work very well. And waters in Niigata Prefecture were soft waters. As a result, they could not make good sake with Niigata waters.

In recent years, sake brewing technology has advanced, and now they can well brew sake relatively easily even with soft waters by the method of long-period low-temperature fermentation. Also, change in tastes of people has helped Niigata sake, which has a clear flavor with a crispy aftertaste, gain in popularity. Now, Niigata Prefecture boasts of the third place in the country in the shipping amount of sake next to that of Hyogo Prefecture and Kyoto Prefecture. Of course, I am sure that people concerned in the prefecture have been making efforts continuously.

My first visit to Niigata City in this year was in March, when Niigata Sake no Jin (Niigata Sake Festa) was held, and I visited this time to participate this gathering. So, this was the second time in this year to visit the city. In both times, I felt the enthusiasm for promoting Niigata sake from breweries in the prefecture, Niigata Prefectural Brewing Experimental Station, Niigata Prefectural Brewers' Association, and other staff concerned.

For example, they have developed their original sake rice, Koshitanrei, they are frequently setting up opportunities for education and technology exchange in the brewing industry, and they have established the Niigata Original Sake Brand Control Association to protect and promote Niigata sake brand. I was much impressed by their continued efforts. The Niigata Sake Masters' Gathering at this time must also be a part of such efforts.

When they knew that I came from Tokyo to participate the gathering, each person on the organizer side expressed their gratitude from the heart saying, "Thank you for coming such a long way." I really felt their true and earnest heart. I am not a very big Niigata-sake lover, but, being so much thanked, I would like to yell for Niigata sake.

By the way, I regret that I could not enjoy good foods and sakes prepared that evening because I was busy in talking and exchanging cards with many people. When I noticed, there were only few foods. In spite of the fact that seafood is really good in Niigata, I found only some sandwiches, cakes, fruit, etc. However, I was given a bottle of Niigata sake as a souvenir. So, I must be satisfied.

Today's Sake
"Shinmai Shinshu Funaguchi Kikusui Ichibanshibori" and "Jukusei Funaguchi Kikusui Ichibanshibori" (Kikusui Sake Co., Ltd.)
These are canned sakes. I drank them in the Shinkansen train when coming back from Niigata.One of the pleasures of travel is enjoying uncommon and delicious foods or drinks of different places.

In a train, having box lunches and beverages sold in the train or at a station is also enjoyable.

In such a case, canned sake or cup sake is quite handy. They are usually cheap sake, but these canned sakes are quite good! "Shinmai Shinshu Funaguchi Kikusui Ichibanshibori" (green can) is a nama genshu of the honjozo type, and "Jukusei Funaguchi Kikusui Ichibanshibori" (red can) is a nama genshu of the ginjo type. Both have rich and bold flavors, and the latter has more fragrant because it is a ginjo type sake.

Autum leaves, Waterfall, and a Sake in Niigata

On Sunday (November 30), I and my hiking company went for a hike for seeing autumn leaves in the western Tanzawa Area in Kanagawa Prefecture. We parked the car in the parking lot of the Nishitanzawa Shizen Kyoshitsu (literally translated into "Nishitanzawa Nature School"). The destination peak was Azegamaru.

First, we walked up along a creek. Although there were several erosion-control dams we needed to climb over, the walk along the stream was quite enjoyable. The water seemed clear and pure and even the entire ravine looked bright, which was maybe because of the white sediments of quarts diorite sands on the riverbed under the clear blue sky of the late autumn.



After about 50 minutes along the creek, we came to the point where the path to the peak left the creek, but before we left the creek we saw a waterfall named Hondana no Taki. We needed to walk up along the creed for a few minute to the waterfall, but I must declare that this waterfall is well worth seeing. This about 60-m high waterfall drops almost vertically, and the fall crest looks like a knife that is cutting the hard rock into two.




After seeing the waterfall, we continued walking along the mountain trail which was getting steeper. When we got close to the mountain ridge, we saw many Japanese andromeda trees. Each of theses evergreen trees looked getting ready for the next spring by preparing many small flower buds on their branches. When we reached the ridge, colorful autumn leaves were replaced with dry and dead leaves; winter was already more dominant than autumn on the ridge.



We continue walking along the trail on the ridge repeating several times of uphill and downhill walk. Since we could have a clear view of mountains around because of the fine weather, the walk on the ridge was a merry experience. In addition, there was very little breeze, so we did not feel coldness in spite of this late autumn season. Finally we reached the summit after needing about two-hour walk on the ridge. We had late lunch there, and went back the same trail to the car.

Today's Sake
Junmaishu Koshinotsukasa (Imayotsukasa Shuzo)
Junmai Koshinotsukasa was my most favorite sake of the five sakes I tasted when I visited Imayotsukasa Shuzo in Niigata City, Niigata Prefecture.
At this time, I tasted a junmai, junmaiginjo, junmaidaiginjo, junmai shiboritate nama-nama, and junmai karakuchi types.
Among these sakes, Junmai Koshinotsukasa had an excellent fragrance and is gentle but rich in flavor. It first tasted like a junmaiginjo sake rather than a junmai sake. Actually, it is said this sake was brewed in the method for making junmaiginjo sake using rice polished down to 65%, which is a little bit higher percentage value for making junmaiginjo sake.
After tasting this sake I purchased a bottle of this, and I plan to try drinking it warmed next time.

Rice used: Gohyakumangoku

Seimaibuai: 65%

Alcohol: 15 - 16%

Gathering for Enjoying Tokyo Sake

Tokyo tends to be conceived poor in nature due to its image of the center of Japan's business, economy, and politics, but there are many places in Tokyo richly endowed with nature. In some of these places, sake breweries have been making sake using good waters, which are blessings bestowed by nature, since olden days.

Actually, there are 12 breweries in Tokyo, and 4 breweries in the Nishitama area (western part of Tokyo) collectively hosted the Eighth "Gathering for Enjoying Nishitama Sake and Sake Cups" at Tachikawa Washington Hotel in Tachikawa City on Sturday 22, November. I participated the gathering. The host breweries were Nakamura Shuzojou from Akiruno City, Ishikawa Brewery and Tamura Shuzoujou from Fussa City, and Ozawa Shuzou from Ome City.

The gathering is held in Café de Paris (http://www.tachikawa-wh.com/cafe/index.html), the restaurant on the third floor of the hotel, and twenty sakes from these breweries, including daiginjo, and junmai-daiginjo sakes, were served with the food of the restaurant.




Since this was already the eighth "Gathering for Enjoying Nishitama Sake and Sake Cups," there were many attendees who I had got acquainted with. So, when I entered the restaurant, I felt quite easy, and I could enjoy talking and drinking during the gathering. We also enjoyed playing bingo, and some lucky attendees won bottle of sake from these breweries.

All the sakes served were good and they well suited the food, which is European cooking. I believe sake goes well with any types of food including not only Japanese food but also Western food and I think the gathering at this time well exemplified how sake goes well with Western food. I hope the parties concerned will continue to make efforts for familiarizing sake to the public and provide opportunities in which people can enjoy sake with various foods.

Today's Sake
Kisho Ginjo-namazume Shiroyamazakura (Nozaki Shuzo)
The article this time is about the gathering for enjoying Nishitama Sake. Nozaki Shuzo making "Kisho" brand sake is also a brewery in the Nishitama area. This brewery is a small company located in Akiruno City, Tokyo. I hear that the brewery is sticking to the method that has not been changed since olden times, and making a small amount of sake in an attentive manner.
Usually, sake is pasteurized twice in its production process, soon after sake is pressed and immediately before it is shipped. But, for a namazume-shu, the pasteurization immediately before the shipment is omitted. This ginjo-namazume-shu is a wonderful sake that is well balanced between the matured taste from aging and freshness.

Alcohol: 16 - 17%

The Opening of Tachikawa Yataimura Paradise

In Tachikawa City, Tokyo, the Yataimura Paradise (http://yatapara.com/) was opened yesterday. This is a small food squire consisting of ten and several retro-style small restaurants. We went there as first visitors of this pleasant place.

The place opened 5:00 p.m. and we reached there 5:15. The place was not so crowded at first, but only after about an hour, the seats of most restaurants were occupied by customers.

We first went to a yakitori shop, and then Okinawa food restaurant. Employers of those restaurants looked not very accustomed to handling their jobs because of the first time for them to perform their jobs. Actually, when I paid for the food in the first yakitori restaurant, we were the first customers for this restaurant who were to pay money. A cashier calculated the sum very awkwardly while we were waiting patiently. Finally, she calculated the sum. I gave her a 10-thousand bill. She opened the cash register, ... . and found no change there!! Oooops! They seemed to have forget to prepare changes.

Anyway, this is a pleasant place and there no place like this in my vicinity, so I am sure that I will frequently visit this place in the future.

本日の酒
Shichihonyari Junmai Wataribune (Tomitashuzo）
After visiting the Yataimura Paradise, we went to a restaurant run by my acquaintance. There, knowing that I was interested in this sake, he kindly kept it for me. This is for me the second sake using the rice variety Shiga-wataribune-roku-go. This sake is mild on your palate, leaving flinty impression.

Rice used: Shiga-wataribune-roku-go

Seimaibuai: 77%

Alcohol: 15 to 16%

Sake meter value: (+)6

Acidity: 2.1

A Rice Variety -- Shiga Wataribune Roku Go

(Liquor shop Hashikawa in Nagahama City)

I was staying in Nagahama City in Shiga Prefecture on October 18. I dropped in a liquor shop Hashikawa in the city and purchased a bottle of sake named "Shigasakari Wataribune." "Waratibune" is taken from the name of a rice variety Shiga Wataribune Roku Go, which is used to brew this sake.

The rice variety Shiga Wataribune Roku Go (sixth variety of the Wataribune group) was developed at Shiga Prefectural Agricultural Experiment Station in 1895 and belongs to an ancestral family of a famous sake rice variety Yamadanishiki. Wataribune Roku Go had been cultivated for making sake as a recommended variety of the prefecture between the period of 1916 and 1959, but then the cultivation of the variety was discontinued.

In a recent year, they started test cultivation of Wataribune Roku Go in Shiga Prefecture and test brewing was performed in the 2005 brewery year (*1). Therefore, the sake I purchased is presumably a product of just a few years old.

*1: A sake brewery year starts in the beginning of July and ends in the end of June.

(A lot of kimono-clad women appeared in Nagahama City because the city held a kimono event on this day.)



Today's Sake
Junmai-ginjo Shigasakari Wataribune (Omi Shuzo)
I like the strong acidity of this sake. The taste should be described as being bold and having a strong impression rather than being rich.

Rice used: Shiga Wataribune Roku Go

Seimaibuai: 60%

Alcohol: 18.3%

Sake meter value: (+)4

Acidity: 1.9

Yeast used: No. 1601

Takigi Kagura of the Mitake Shrine

October 12, my friend and I visited the Musashi Mitake Shrine to see takigi kagura performance. Kagura is a type of dances performed as religious rituals and is to be dedicated for gods of shinto. Seventeen pieces of kagura have been handed down to the Musashi Mitake Shrine. At this time of the year, some of these pieces of kagura are performed in the nighttime surrounded by bonfires. The word takigi literally means firewood.

We got off the funicular train at the station on the mountain top and walked about 20 minutes to reach a street flanked by souvenir stores and restaurants. We went through the street and came to a squire in front of a big torii gate. This was the place where takigi kagura was to be performed. There was already a temporary stage in the squire.

Until around seven o'clock, we spent time in a souvenir store restaurant called Chimotoya. When I visit this area, I often drop in this restaurant for a cup of coffee. The coffee served here is special one called "Iwashimizu Coffee," which I would recommend. Every morning, the owner of the restaurant goes into the mountains, gets water from a spring, brings it to the restaurant, and makes this aromatic coffee by using this water.

Every time you order the Iwashimizu Coffee, they serve some confections to eat with the coffee. In addition, they serve even a konjak food, which almost makes me order atsukan (warmed sake).

By the way, I found good sake bottle and cups and purchased them. The moon was in the state called jusanya-no-tsuki (a good moon to see) on the previous day, the design of these sake bottle and cups seems very suitable for drinking sake while admiring the moon.



Well, the takigi kagura started at 7:30. The plays included "Urayasu no Mai," "Hohei," "Daisago Kiri," and "Tanekashi (Inari)." Unfortunately, we needed to leave the place while the "Tanekashi (Inari)" was being performed for fear that we might miss the last funicular train.

"Urayasu no Mai" was created in the early Showa period and its song words were made by the Showa Emperor. The words express a prayer for world peace and this slow and elegant kagura dance is danced by two shrine maidens.



"Hohei" represents gratitude to the gods of shinto. The dancer jingles bells and swings a wooden stick at the end of which paper strips hang down, purifying the place ceremonially.

During the dance of "Daisago Kiri," the two dancers express movements of scattering rice grains. I am sure that the rice has been playing a very important part in the history of Japan. Since the rice is emblematic of the entire crops, the "Daisago Kiri" kagura is probably a prayer for rich harvest.

The rice also appears in the next play of kagura "Tanekashi (Inari)." A dancer wearing a hyottoko mask (droll faced mask) sows rice seeds, and a fox-masked dancer makes fun of him. A fox is the familiar of the god Inari. Inari is written "稲荷" in Japanese and the character "稲" means rice. Thus, this dance is also related to agriculture and a prayer for rich harvest. The hyottoko-mask actually climbs down from the stage, comes to you, and gives you real grains of rice.



Considering the fact that the food self-support ratio of Japan is lower than 40 percent, It is obvious that Japan must increase the production of agriculture. When seeing these dances, I feel that Japanese people should seriously think of Japanese agriculture not in terms of only the food self-support ratio but also the protection of Japanese culture.

Today's Sake
Sawanoi Honjo Nama（Ozawa Brewery）
I drank this sake in the restaurant Momijiya near the big torii gate of the Mitake Shrine.
A sake with the same brand tends to slightly change in its taste depending on its brewery year. One of the good points of Sawanoi sakes is that they have stable quality, having little fluctuation in taste.

Shishimai (Lion Dances) and Kashima odori

Long into Okutama Lake, a tongue of land juts out. A path, which seems so narrow that vehicles cannot pass each other, ascends toward the end of the tongue. Seeing the dark-green slightly rippling water of the lake on the right, I walk up the road. As I inch my way to the end of the tongue, the road goes on the left side of the tongue of land and winds up. Now I am on a cliff and I can look down the surface of the lake which now appears tranquiller than before through cherry trees and others. The mountain air in the early autumn feels crisp.

I continue walking and find myself at the entrance of the square where the shrine office building stands. In the square, several tens of people already occupy their own places. I climb the stone stairs on the right. Below on the right of the stairs is the road I have just trodden. Soon, I reach Ogochi Shrine that stands at the highest point of the tongue.

In 1957, the construction of the Ogochi Dam, which backs up the water of Okutama Lake, was completed. Then, this shrine was built to collectively enshrine the gods of the shrines in nearby districts that are now sunk deep in the lake.

Today, September 14, a festival of Ogochi Shrine was held. From nine o'clock in the morning, shishimai (lion dances) and Kashima odori dances were to be dedicated to the shrine. To see these dances, we got up early in the morning, take trains and a bus, came a long way, climbed the road of tongue, and were finally here.

When I was waiting for a band of shishimai on the stone stairs leading to the shrine, I heard bamboo fifes resounding through the cool air from a distance. Drums accompanied clear high-pitched sounds of the fifes. I traced the road lying below but it curved left and disappeared behind the mountain. The music of the shishimai band was getting closer and closer and I was anticipating the band would suddenly appear from behind the mountain. I was very much excited.

Finally, a band of shishimai lead by a guy wearing a happi coat came into view. Fifers, sasara players (sasara is a musical instrument made of bamboo and it makes rubbing sound, a sasara player plays this instrument wearing headgears ornamented with paper flowers), mando-bearers (mando is an object with drooping sprays of flowers and a stem to hold it up), and three dancers wearing lion-heads were marching over here. Children were running back and forth around them.


This shishimai band came from the Sakamoto district, and the other shishimai bands who were going to subsequently show their performance were those from the Kawano and Hara districts. The style of these shishimai dances is called sanbiki shishimai (three-lion shishimai) or sasara shishimai. Usually, the shishimai dance of this style is danced by three lion dancers who beat the drums tied to their waists and several sasara players who wear ornamented headgears, accompanied by several fifers.

The three lion heads used in shishimai are called oodayu, kodayu, and mejishi, translated into a big male lion, small male lion, and female lion, respectively, although how to call them varies according to the district. They can be distinguished from each other by their colors and horns. For example, an oodayu has voluted horns and a mejishi has no horn or has an orb on the head.

These three lions dance various dances, many of which represent simple, unaffected and trivial themes. For example, the story of the play called saogakari is like the following: The three lions were wandering in mountains and came to a point where a fallen tree was blocking their way. They were troubled because they could not go on. However, finally after some trial and error, they could successfully overcome their obstacle and they happily danced and played together. Quite a pleasant story, isn't it?



When the dances of the bands from the three districts were over, it was time when Kashima odori dances were going to be dedicated to the shrine. In this performing art, six women-kimono-clad men dance.

The dancers were wearing fascinatingly elegant kimono and golden crowns, and danced artistic dances, which were graceful and settled, to meaningful songs. It is quite amazing that such wonderful performing art was conveyed to the place in so deep mountains long ago and still exists even now.



Today's Sake
Honjozo Ginrei Tateyama (Tateyama Brewing）
When I went to scale Mt. Tsurugi in the North Japan Alps in August, I stayed in a mountain lodge. Fortunately, they were selling beer and sake in the lodge. At that time, I bought Ginrei Tateyama and drank it cold. It was palatable sake, I could drink it smoothly, and at the same time I felt stable body in this sake. The aftertaste was quite dry but flinty. Recently, I found the same sake on the shelf in the nearby liquor shop, and I bought it. This time, I am enjoying it hot. When warmed, it is not bad but it becomes somehow strong in terms of an alcoholic sensation.

Rice used: Gohyakumangoku

Seimaibuai: 70%

Alcohol: 15.3%

Nihonshudo: (+)5.0

Acidity： 1.4