Traditional Japanese knowledge and skills used in the production of sake and shochu distilled spirits were approved on Wednesday for addition to UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list, a committee of the UN cultural body said
It is believed people in the archipelago began brewing rice in a simple way about two millennia ago, with a third-century Chinese chronicle describing the Japanese as fond of alcohol.
By about 1000 AD, the imperial palace had a department to supervise the manufacturing of sake and its use in rituals, the Japan Sake and Shochu Makers Association said.
Photo: AFP
The multi-staged brewing techniques still used today are thought to have been established in the 1700s. Nowadays there are about 1,400 sake breweries in Japan.
Shochu, which was also added to UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list on Wednesday, is a spirit distilled from different ingredients such as sweet potato, mainly in the country’s southwest.
THE PROCESS
Sake is stronger than beer or wine made from grapes, but weaker than shochu. It is made by fermenting special rice with bigger and rounder grains than varieties eaten in meals.
First, the grains are polished to remove the outer layers, revealing a water-absorbent white core rich in starch.
Brewers wash, soak and steam the polished rice before growing a special mold on it called koji. They then mix it with water and yeast to create a starter.
Adding more steamed rice and water several times sparks two types of chemical reactions in a single cask — converting starch to sugar and sugar to alcohol — a more complex process than making wine from sugar-rich grapes.
WHAT IS KOJI?
Koji is mold from bacteria found in humid Asian countries. It is an essential element of Japanese cuisine — used not just to make sake, but also miso, soy sauce and other food.
The genus designated as Japan’s national mold is called aspergillus oryzae, more commonly known as koji-kabi.
“Over more than a thousand years, brewers selected and cultivated the best type of mold from all the wild ones out there,” said Taku Takahashi, a representative from Tokyo’s Toshimaya Shuzo brewery.
The sake-making process as we know it now, where humans intervene to spark fermentation, was developed “after many, many failures,” he added.
SAKE VARIETIES
Generally speaking, there are two types of sake: one made purely from rice, and the other, mixed with distilled alcohol.
The higher the grade of grain polishing, the fruitier and drier the sake.
More polished varieties requiring more rice tend to be pricier, but some gastronomists appreciate less polished types for their rich and mellow flavor.
Breweries adjust their flavors to suit local delicacies. For example, near the Pacific Ocean, dry sake is produced to pair with red meat fish such as tuna and bonito.
HOW IT IS CONSUMED?
Sake “has a very important role” in society and is drunk at weddings and funerals, Takahashi said.
It is also drunk to mark store openings and election victories — or just to say kampai meaning “cheers” in Japanese pubs.
Traditionally three ritual offerings are made to the many gods of Japan’s Shinto religion: rice, a rice cake and sake, and at Shinto weddings, the bride and groom drink sake from the same porcelain cup to symbolize their union.
Breweries still hang a ball of cedar leaves outside, which change color from green to brown — letting customers know when the newly developed sake is ready in early winter.
CONSUMPTION
Sake consumption has declined a lot in Japan over 50 years, as other drinks like beer and wine become more popular.
The country drank only 390 million liters of sake last year, down from 1.7 billion liters in 1973, the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said.
However, exports of sake have more than doubled since 2011, and it is now brewed as far afield as New Zealand, France and the US.
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