Pairings (Issue No. 1)
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Issue 6: From the Editor
Welcome to Issue 6 of Sake Today! Thanks to your support, we have crossed yet another threshold. It’s been a year since we first made the decision to go quarterly and offer subscriptions, and our first wave of subscribers have already renewed with this issue. Please be sure to continue the support with a subscription…
Hiroshima
Hiroshima, along with Nada in Kobe and Fushimi in Kyoto, is one of the most significant brewing regions in western Japan. However, it has only been so for a small part of sake’s long history. Until the middle of the Meiji Era about 120 years ago it was just a run-of-the-mill brewing region. What really…
Vol. 1 Issue 4: From the Editor
I have been buying sake from the same shop here in Kamakura for over twenty years now. Sure, I buy sake regularly at other places, too. I am always searching for enjoyable sake shopping options that offer selections other than those with which I am familiar. Still, there is this one shop in particular where…
Niigata, Jizake Ground Zero
Rice region. Sake region. There are probably no two greater associations that the Japanese make with Niigata. The prefecture is known as the largest producer of highly-prized Koshihikari rice and is additionally home to no less than ninety sake breweries, placing it second only behind Hyogo. In terms of overall production volume, it is third.…
Vol. 1 Issue 3: From the Editor
A recent social media post by a sake brewer who travels the world proactively promoting his product described a couple of sake events in London at which he appeared. He then, after the modern literary equivalent of a pregnant pause, stated confidently, “The pace at which sake is growing in popularity is accelerating appreciably.” While…
Flash Report: Suisen
Everyone is familiar with the destruction that the tsunami of March 11th, 2011 caused along the northeastern coast of Japan. Rikuzentakata was one of the harder hit cities, with most of the urban infrastructure completely washed away.
Regionality in Japanese Sake
The Japanese archipelago, stretching far from north to south, east to west, has several distinct climates depending on the region. The people that live in those respective regions also lead different lifestyles, accounting for differences in food culture in particular. The unique character of those food cultures persists today and in similar fashion the flavors…
Sake and Agriculture
Rice. The key ingredient of sake is also the staple of Japanese food culture. There have been periods in the past when obtaining enough to simply live was a struggle. The ancestors of many Japanese today anxiously watched over the cultivation of rice as if with prayers on their lips, and when the season of…