Nishitama Sake Gathering

I attended the 8'th Nishitama Sake and Sake Cup Gathering held in Akiruno City on Saturday, May 22, after attending a kura study tour at a sake brewery in the city.



Before noon, for the kura study tour, I visited Nakamura Syuzou, Inc., which is known for its brand name Chiyotsuru. It is rare that we can see the interior of this brewery, and it was the first time for me to go inside of the brewery.

You do not see the sake of this brewery very frequently on shelves at liquor shops in Tokyo, and they seem to operate their business in a relatively quiet way. However, their sake is rich-flavored and clean-cut and I like their sake. The brewery boasts of its multi-time winning of gold awards at National New Sake Contest. The latest gold awards of this brewery are those won in the two consecutive years of 2009 and 2010, suggesting that the brewery has high brewing techniques.

The master brewer showed us the inside of the brewery, including the rice-steaming room, fermentation room, storage room, etc.

In the rice-steaming room, there was equipment for making streamed rice such as a rice washing machine, soaking tanks, horizontal continuous rice streaming device, rice steaming caldron, in which a coil heat exchanger was placed. These devices and machines are quite commonly found in most sake breweries.

The fermentation room was chilly air-conditioned. There were neatly arranged 10,000-litter thermal tanks in the room. A scaffold was set up between the two rows of tanks at the level of the top surfaces of the tanks. Workers are supposed to move from the scaffold onto a tank on which they perform their work such as stirring of fermentation mash. The tanks are equipped with handrails on their tops for worker's safety. The low ceiling seemed to make the work on the tanks hard for some tall workers since they had to bend over on the tanks. It was fortunate that the master brewer and the accompanying worker were not very tall.

The storage room, a kind of big refrigerator, has a narrow entrance, and I could not find anything special after taking a glance inside. So, I asked several questions of the brewery worker accompanying us to spend time, and the kura study of about 30 minutes ended shortly.

This time, we were not allowed to take pictures of the inside of the brewery buildings and I have no photos from the brewery to present here. However, we could freely take pictures in the exhibition hall of sake making tools that was established on the premises.



In the exhibition hall, visitors can sample some sakes from the brewery, but on that day, we were going to attend the 8'th Nishitama Sake and Sake Cup Gathering later, and we just tasted their liqueurs, yuzushu (citron liquor) and umeshu (plum liquor). Especially, the umeshu was not very sweet, exhibiting clear taste and an impression of slight citrus aroma. Although some sake lovers tend to keep a distance from sweet liqueurs, but I felt that they might able to enjoy this umeshu.

Then, we moved to an Akiruno Rupia assembly room, where the 8'th Nishitama Sake and Sake Cup Gathering were held from 2:00 p.m.

Nishitama Brewers Club consisting of Ishikawa Brewery, Tamura Syuzoujou, Nakamura Syuzou, Inc., and Ozawa Syuzou prepared their sake, which were known for their brand names of Tamajiman, Kasen, Chiryotsuru, and Sawanoi, respectively.

This time, I tried to carefully taste Chiryotsuru sake, and I felt that the sakes from this brewery were relatively rich in taste compared with the sakes from the other three breweries, and I liked the sake characteristics of this brewery. The provided Chiryotsuru sakes were Krakuchi Nama Chozoshu, Junmai Namazake, and Junmai Ginjo Namazake, which I tried in this order. Of them, Krakuchi Nama Chozoshu was especially nice. In spite of the rice milling rate of 65%, this sake had a fruity aroma, and it had a moderate impression of being "nama."

Also, I renewed the view of Kasen Funeshibori Muroka Genshu. I usually order this seasonally limited sake in December, and drink it soon after the delivery of the bottle. So, it was the first time for me to drink this sake in May. I recognized how this sake can turn from a blunt young sake into a roundly ripen one during its storage of about half a year. It seems that this sake is shipped in April and December by subscription. So, I would like to order this sake also in April next time.

Story of Three Happy Drinkers

Once upon a time, there lived three happy sake drinkers, who were a lady and two guys.

One day, they got together and went to an izakaya bar to drink sake.
They started drinking with Gassan (月山) and Tenmei (天明). Then, they had Kozaemon (小左衛門), Gikyo (義侠), Yukigasumi-no-sato (雪がすみの郷), Suiki (翠喜), and Suiro (翠露). By the time a bottle of the prestigious Juyondai (十四代) was brought in front of them to their table, they were almost dead drunk. However, they still wanted to drink and they ordered Miyoshigiku (三芳菊) and Yoro Genshu Junmai (養老原酒 純米).

At this time, they recognized what they were drinking, but later they wouldn't remember what they were drinking. However, they thought the most important point about sake drinking was not to drink good sake but to drink happily.

Anyway, also this time, they were drinking happily. Whenever they got together, they had sake and got dead drunk happily.

Salty Sake Cup

One of my drinking friends recently visited Tobacco and Salt Museum and bought a sake cup made of salt there. We decided to get together and drink some sake from this cup called "shio-guinomi."

There has been a custom that people place some salt on the edge of a masu (box-shaped wooden sake-drinking vessel) and drink sake from it while licking some salt at times.

In old days, when people were poor and had difficulty to prepare good stuff to be paired with sake, salt was seemingly a handy alternative to something to be paired with sake, but using salt in this way had to be sound somehow miserable. Now that the Japanese people are not so poor as they were after World War II, drinking sake only with salt may sound stylish since it seems that such sake drinkers love sake and really want to enjoy sake.

This salt sake cup is said to have been produced after the producer was inspired from the custom of using a masu on whose edge some salt is placed. Salt tastes only salty, but drinking from this salt cup was an interesting experience.

Summer Sake!

My friend and I went to the Okutama area on May 5.

We dropped in Sawanoi-en run by Ozawa Syuzou.

They were selling Junmai Namazake Sawane, which is low-alcohol sake and is sold during the summer season. I bought one bottle of this sake to drink it at a table in the rest station of Sawanoi-en. The low-alcohol sake tasted flinty and crispy, and I feel happy with such sake when it's hot. Besides the sake, we bought young radishes and fresh tofu that was still warm. The tofu was rich in taste and crunching fresh radish with wheat miso paste was really refreshing.

Sake is a Must for a Festival in a Mountain Village

It is no exaggeration to say that, in Japan, sake is drunk where a festival is held. They bring sake brewed in the vicinity as offering at a temple or shrine festival. Yesterday, I visited a shrine in a montane village in Okutama Town, Tokyo to see shishimai (lion dances). And, sake had an important role as a nice supporting player of the festival.

The shrine is located on a mountain slope, and the approach way to it climbs along steep stone steps. There is a torii gate halfway, and beyond and above the torii gate, stands the main gate of the shrine. This is a two-story gate. The steps continue climbing even under this gate. If you walk through the gate and come out, you'll find yourself in a square. The square is almost as high as the second level of the gate building, and if you turn around, you will see a stage on the second floor of the gate building. So, this architecture is unusual as a shrine gate.


The mountain slope further continues beyond the square, and another flight of stone stairs leads to the main building of the shrine above.


On both side of the stairs in front of the main building, there are stonewalls and the places are formed into several tiers so that these tiers can be used as audience seats that look down the stage of the main gate. General visitors sit in these audience seats to see lion dances dedicated to this shrine while those concerned with the festival and guests sit on the stage floor and eat foods and drink sake. On the stage floor, several bottles of the local sake Sawanoi are seen near one of the low tables.

A funnily masked clown appeared in the program called "Yumi-gakari." He was dancing with a bottle of sake hanging from his waist.

After a while, I found that the clown was not there any longer. I wondered where he was. Soon, I found he had started serving sake to the audience. Assumedly, the sake was the one he was hanging from the waist while he was dancing. To my delight, he was coming toward me. I was given some sake. It was fun to exchange some words with him while drinking the sake. This was really a delightful festival.

Cooking Magic or Sake Magic?

It is well known that sake is a useful liquid not just as a beverage but also for cooking and beauty.

A skin lotion containing sake as an ingredient is said to be effective for whitening. But, I am too lazy to make a skin lotion from sake, so I apply it directly to my face. Everyday after washing my face in the morning and after taking a hot bath in the evening in the last winter season, I applied a small amount of sake to my face, and I could keep my face skin moisturized during the winter. Someone might say that sake is too valuable to apply to your face, but much less sake is needed to apply to your face than to drink by yourself.

Sake is also useful for cooking. I'm sure most Japanese have ever eaten asari clams steam steeped in sake, which are quite delicious food. When I had a chance to sample kijoshu (sake whose fermentation process uses already made sake to replace a certain amount of water added to the fermentation mash) before, it occurred to me that adding a small amount of this sake to Chinese fried rice could make delicious Chinese fried rice. Although I have not tried it, I want to make Chinese fried rice by using kijoshu in the future.

Thinking of possibilities of sake as described above, I recently found the Internet site "Cooking Magic!" This site has been established by the Japan Sake Brewers Association in an aim to promote "use of sake," and seems to be a part of the across-the-country campaign "Sake for Every Household," which has started in the late April.

The original bottle designed for the campaign has a triangular shape in cross-section with the capacity of 180 ml. This shape of the bottle is convenient for storing it in your refrigerator in a door pocket between other cylindrical bottles, thus the bottle shape saving the space in the refrigerator.

The site also carries recipes using sake. But, what is especially interesting is the concept of "hitofuri sake" (one-shake sake). According to the site, one shake of sake over various foods increases the savor and flavor of them. Ryorishu, or cooking sake, is something to be added to a sophisticated food as its ingredient while it is being cooked. In contrast, hitofuri sake is used in a way more like seasonings such as soy sauce, salt or pepper, so this is more handy! One shake of sake into the rice cooker before turning on the switch, one shake over cold rice or other foods before nuking them, one shake into an instant cup noodle after adding hot water. These are quite easy ways of using sake. Even I, who do not cook very often, can use sake to improve the taste of food.

So, I have already tried hitofuri sake. Cooked rice packed in a plastic container, which is eaten after heated with a microwave oven. Before nuking it, I poured some sake in the container of the rice. With a glossy appearance, the finished rice tasted nice. However, it smelled somehow like sake. Maybe, I had added too much sake. O.K., I can adjust the amount of sake next time.



Then, I had another try: instant cup noodle. Immediately after pouring hot water, I poured some sake in the cup. When eating this, I felt much alcohol in the soup. I felt like I was being choked with vaporized alcohol, and slightly tipsy. I am afraid that I added too much sake, again. As a sake lover, I tend to add sake more than necessary. However, the taste certainly improved, with enhanced umami compared with seafood noodle I usually eat. If you are not good at alcohol, you can boil sake to completely vaporize alcohol beforehand (be careful since vaporized alcohol may suddenly catch fire), and you can use it for cooking.



I would like to try to apply hitofuri sake to various foods in the future.

Which to Use a Wine Glass or Ochoko for Drinking Sake

The Japan Times placed a feature article about London-based chef and TV presenter Silvena Rowe on Sunday. (U.K. chef hails sake as 'sexy')

She visited Japan in March and stayed there for two weeks. During her stay, she appeared in a program for Fuji TV. According to The Japan Times' article, the newspaper had an interview with her a few hours before the filming for the program.

She won s Sake Contributor Award in September 2009 at the International Wine Challenge in London. I don't know exactly what type of award this is, but she seems to have been recognized for her contribution to the field of matching sake with Western cuisine.

She insists that, to make the allure of sake understood by Westerners, brewers in Japan need to change the way they serve it. "If I had sake, I wouldn't put it in a small cup. I would put it in a big wine glass and serve it like a beautiful white wine," she says. According to her, you should allow sake to breathe, put it to your nose, swirl it, give it a good swish, see the color, see the texture, and see the coating on the glass! Only after these steps, you will begin to understand sake in a Western way.

Using a wine glass sounds a good idea to enjoy sake with a rich bouquet (especially first aroma note). Also, enough contact with the air may fully extract the taste of sake.

By the way, the per-litter export value of the sake exported to the United States last year was twice or three times higher than those exported to Korea, Taiwan, and China. This could be calculated from the total quantity and total amount of export value of sake exported to each country (I collected the data from an article of "Jokai Times," which reports movement in the sake and other alcoholic beverage industries). So, we can guess that people in the United States (and maybe in European countries) usually drink special designation sake including junmai, ginjo, and daiginjo sake. From this presumption, it may stand to reason that they use big wine glasses for drinking sake.

In a Japanese way, to the contrary, people use the dedicated sake-tasting cup called kikijoko for sake tasting. The cup contains as much as 180 ml of sake. It is a porcelain cup, and is not transparent like a wine glass is. Instead, it has a thick blue co-centric circles on the bottom inside, which are useful for seeing the color and transparency of sake. So, it can be said that the kikijoko is somehow similar to a wine glass in terms of the functionality.



I myself prefer an earthenware ochoko to a wine glass to drink sake. Many of the Japanese have the ability of slurping sake with making noise. Westerners may not be good at drinking sake in this way, and this drinking way may even sound rude for Westerners. But, actually I sip sake by slurping it. With this method, sake is taken into my mouth instantaneously being mixed with the air, so it probably helps the taste of sake fully be extracted.