In the waning days of the Edo period (1603~1868) Shitara was a thriving post station and lodging town along the major route from coastal Aichi to landlocked Nagano Prefecture. Salt harvested from the sea moved inland as lumber logged from the forestland surrounding the town was transported to oceanside communities. After a long day on the road weary merchants and workers overnighting in town had a need for food and, of course, drink. The provision of sake to thirsty travelers became a profitable business.
During this period, the Sekiya clan was appointed by the governing shôgunate as head of the village. One of their official responsibilities was the collection and distribution of rice. The family also had a significant amount of its own rice fields and after its contribution (basically a tax) to the shôgunate, it still had significant stock to sell. With sake in demand and rice in the family storehouses, the decision to begin brewing the beverage was a simple one. In 1864 Buzaemon Sekiya founded what is now officially known as Sekiya Jôzô (Sekiya Brewery Co., Ltd.).
During the Great Depression in the 1930s, the company was forced to sell off many of its assets and almost lost the kura (brewery), but relatives managed to pool enough cash to keep the business in the family. Originally selling under the brand name Tamakatsura, the company was competing in the low-priced market and came to be known as purveyors of bargain sake. The family then made the decision to additionally begin producing premium sake, which became the now well-known Houraisen brand. The name comes from that of a nearby temple and mountain, both called Hourai, combined with the character for a natural spring (read as sen), implying good health and longevity. The business has been passed down through the family to current seventh-generation Executive Director Takeshi Sekiya.
I generally have gushing things to say about the hospitality and generosity of sake brewery owners and Sekiya easily reinforces that impression. The brewery is nearly 40 minutes from the nearest train station on the meandering Iida Line, which has a long string of stops that are simple, unmanned platforms in tiny farming communities. Sekiya has sacrificed the entirety of his day during the busy brewing season to show me around. I find him waiting in his car as I, and I alone, deboard the train.
Sekiya is casually dressed in an outdoorsy North Face vest and jeans. In the latter half of his 40s, he looks fit and clearly stays active. A ski rack on the roof of his car steers us to a conversation about sports and he confesses to being sore from a soccer match the previous day. Talk shifts to that of a family man speaking about his two daughters–one in high school, the other university–and the drive along curvy mountain roads passes quickly.
Shitara, the aforementioned town which is home to the company’s main brewery and headquarters, is situated in rural northwestern Aichi Prefecture on the Nagano border. It is a small hamlet notched out of wooded mountainsides. Its elderly-heavy population numbers around 4800 and has been steadily declining for many years. It’s quite possible that everyone knows everyone in town and without a doubt, they all know Houraisen sake and Takeshi Sekiya himself.
In 2010 he took over as head of the company after about a 30-year stint by his father. This was a task for which he had been preparing himself all along. He graduated from Nôdai (Tokyo University of Agriculture)–considered by most to be Japan’s top brewing school–with a major in Brewing Science. His graduation thesis was on the merits of Saitama-grown Wakamizu sake rice. His first job out of university was at a fertilizer company in Shizuoka Prefecture. Following that, he trained at the Hyogo Agricultural Research Center conducting studies on rice strains. Next he worked for a sake wholesaler prior to officially joining his family’s company about 20 years ago. All of this experience provided him with in-depth knowledge of the main raw material of his product as well as how to sell sake. You couldn’t design a better course for the head of a brewery.
Just as the Sekiya family was steward of the town back in the Edo period, the brewery has become significantly involved in buoying the local farming community in the present day. As Japan’s population ages, the agricultural sector is one of the most affected. Younger generations often leave sleepy countryside areas for more financial and social opportunity in large cities. Sekiya Jôzô could simply purchase its rice elsewhere, but a sense of community prevails. On their official website, the company states its pledge clearly and simply, “We will contribute to the community through our business activities.”
Sekiya explains how this is being carried out. “One thing we are doing is taking care of rice paddies. In this area the average age of a farmer is over 70. Japan has made some missteps with its agricultural policies. This has led to farming being relatively unprofitable, and younger generations are not interested in taking over a farm from their parents.”
“There are many rice paddies in this area where the farmers have grown too old to tend. They have just become vacant plots of land. We realized that things were just going to keep getting worse, so in 2006 we stepped in. We began working those paddies that had been abandoned (of course, with the owner’s consent).”
Sekiya goes on to expound on the current state of rice farming in Japan. He says that in some areas you may have to rent the field for a small fee. In other places there may simply be no one to work the land, so the owner has to hire outside laborers or even a land management company to handle it. In Sekiya Jôzô’s case the owners lend the land free of charge and entrust the company to take care of the fields responsibly. In return, it gives the landowner sake made from the rice harvested from the borrowed land as gifts during holiday periods. It also keeps the property in good, working condition.
Sekiya drives me through the nearby rice fields, proudly pointing out which are under the care of his company. “Those over there along the base of the hills–we are working those. At night, it’s a beautiful scene. There’s a reflection of the starry sky off the paddies that is stunning. Fireflies hover over the fields. I come here sometimes in the evening to take photos.” The talk solidifies my impression that he genuinely loves his hometown and is striving to keep it from sliding into obscurity.
At present, about 60% of the rice used by the company is procured from Shitara and the surrounding area. About a quarter of that is grown by the Sekiya team while the remainder is rice purchased from local farmers. The remaining 40% needed for production is from elsewhere–predominantly Yamada Nishiki, which doesn’t grow well in town.
Sekiya Jôzô’s main brewery employs a variety of high-tech machinery that improves efficiency and allows precision control of the process. Yearly production is around 4000 koku (721,563L) with a standard batch size of two tons. Led by toji Takanobu Arakawa, the team at the brewery makes everything from futsû-shu (non-premium sake) to junmai daiginjô.
In April of 2004 the company opened its second kura, the Ginjô Kôbô, with the intent of making its products more accessible. Located on a main route at the fringe of Toyota City (population near 420,000 and HQ of the Toyota Motor Corp.), it’s closer to large markets, including nearby metropolis Nagoya. It has also been designed with the purpose of bringing visitors closer to sake. The attractive brewery/showroom offers tasting, and a whole range of products is available for purchase. Tours are offered and from spring of 2019 visitors will be able to partake in one-day or half-day sake-making experiences.
The Ginjô Kôbô isn’t just for the benefit of visitors. Production volume is a tenth of the Shitara brewery and batch sizes run from as small as 60kg up to 750kg. This allows for a good deal of flexibility and variety in brews. Some batches are tiny, tailor-made creations for specific sake shops, bars or even individuals. Umeshu (plum wine), shôchû (distilled spirits), and various liqueurs are also produced here.
From the viewpoint of training staff, Sekiya firmly believes it is critical for all to understand the processes that the machines are performing in their stead. He says, “If new employees just learn how to push buttons without knowing the traditional ways of making sake, it’s not a good situation. If you do not understand what process the machine is handling for you, you don’t understand sake-making. The batches at the Ginjô Kôbô are smaller and the work is predominantly hands-on. I have new team members or young staff start there. Only after they learn the basics of sake-making in the more labor-intensive way can they move to using the large-scale, high-tech machinery in the main facility.” At the very least a year at the Ginjô Kôbô is mandatory. Brewing activities there are under the watch of the company’s second toji, Naoya Miyase.
Recently, people from outside the company with a passion to study sake–such as those in alcohol distribution, sake wholesale, even foreigners involved in sake sales overseas–have been allowed to work at the facility for about a period of a month. Almost on cue, as I am guided into the kôji room we run into Giovanni Baldini, a WSET-credentialed Italian who acts as Sekiya’s distributor in Florence, Italy. Working alongside another staff member, he mixes the kôji with a rather large smile on his face.
The forward-thinking approach and drive to make its sake more accessible, both domestically and internationally, has been paying dividends for Sekiya Jôzô. In Aichi, it now ranks fourth in production volume. Sekiya says, “It wasn’t that we grew so much that we overtook others, but that mid-sized companies have disappeared or much larger companies seriously curtailed production. Before I knew it, we were fourth.” He says this modestly, as if it’s simply good fortune. But it’s hard to attribute all of Sekiya’s success to luck considering his company has performed well amidst the failures of others in the industry.
His résumé includes having been head of the Sake Brewers Association Junior Council (given the moniker Nisseikyô in Japanese) from 2012-2016 before “retiring” at 45 (the max age of members by organization rule). Nisseikyô is a group of young sakagura (sake brewery) presidents-in-the-making or freshly minted ones. The goal of the organization is to promote sake and educate others about the beverage both domestically and internationally. While presiding over the council, Sekiya was responsible for overseeing and guiding the Sake Samurai program and was heavily involved with the International Wine Challenge.
It was his involvement in Sake Samurai that presented him with the opportunity to produce sake for ENTER.Sake. DJ Richie Hawtin, the driving force behind ENTER.Sake, was recognized as a Sake Samurai in 2014 due to his efforts promoting Japan’s national beverage abroad and a more than 20-year relationship with sake. As Sekiya was the leader of Nisseikyô at the time, the two formed a relationship that has been beneficial to both. Sekiya Jôzô currently makes ENTER.Sake Black (honjôzô), Silver (junmai ginjô) and Gold (junmai daiginjô).
The water sourced by the brewery has minimal mineral content, lending to a generally mellow taste. One of Houraisen’s sake that has enjoyed popularity for a decades is Kuu, a junmai daiginjô that is aged at least a year. It hit the market in 1985. Eikichi Ikeno, the toji at the time, had been submitting sake to the Zenkoku Shinshu Kampyôkai (National New Sake Competition) and finally broke through with the first gold medal brew awarded to the company. That recipe was what became Kuu and the success motivated the company to add it to its standard lineup. Kuu has also racked up four medals in the IWC (International Wine Challenge) over the last eight years. The name comes from one of the characters in a principal Buddhist sutra.
In terms of sales revenue, the top-selling sake produced by Sekiya Jôzô is Beshi, a mellow tokubetsu junmai-shu that has garnered a silver and a bronze at the IWC. The name comes from the last character–meaning contentment–of a famous Edo period poem by Sazan Kan. Another top-seller is Bi (using the character for beauty), a sweet junmai daiginjô made from 100% Yamada Nishiki. Many of the standard sake follow this Zen-like labeling using simple, yet elegant, single characters.
The company presently exports to about fifteen countries with France (its sales hub in the EU) and the US getting the largest volume. About 7% of the Sekiya’s total sales is abroad with a large majority of the exports being the ENTER.sake series. If you are looking to treat yourself to the full Houraisen experience in Japan, Sekiya Jôzô also runs a sake bar/restaurant in downtown Nagoya called Marutani that is a must-visit for fans. Located canalside in the historic Nagono district, the bar is housed in a beautifully restored, wooden rice storehouse.
What the future holds for agriculture in small-town Japan and how it could impact the sake industry is an unknown. Some farming towns will likely fade into non-existence, and conversely, some will bounce back through the efforts of concerned citizens with an emotional investment and companies with the patience to work with local denizens to seek mutually beneficial situations. As both a descendant of the stewards of the land and owner of a stable, local company, Takeshi Sekiya is deeply invested and equally committed. That’s just one more reason to enjoy drinking his sake.
