The Genealogy of Sake (一献の系譜)

Dear god of the rice paddies -

Please send us another good harvest this year.

People have been drinking sake since the time of the gods.

Master brewers, or "toji",

have passed on their techniques from generation to generation.

The Genealogy of Sake

The work of the master brewers -

is about dealing with rice...

and microscopic fungi, invisible to the naked eye.

Responsibility for the entire brewery rests with the toji master brewers.

Quality control was difficult in the old days,

so the sake was sometimes spoiled.

If the sake was spoiled, the brewery was ruined.

Due to this heavy responsibility,

some master brewers even took their own lives.

Noto Toji Guild Chairman Japan Sake Toji Guild Federation President Tsunemasa Nakakura

I always wanted to become a toji but took on the job...

not realizing how hard it was. There's a constant fear that we live with.

Cooped up in the brewery for six months without rest,

brewing sake is brutally hard work.

What drives these men to make sake?

Brewery workers are known as "kurabito".

The master brewers from Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa, Japan are known as Noto Toji.

Shoichi Tempo was once a Noto toji.

Pressured by his father, also a toji,

he left school and joined a brewery.

I felt so lonely.

Scolded by the senior workers, I was brought to tears at times.

I thought, "As long as I'm here, I should try to learn something."

Keeping that in mind, I tried my best.

I was born on a one-acre farm.

I couldn't stay at home in winter.

I followed my dad's advice,

and went away to work.

Like his father and grandfather,

Naohiko Noguchi became a toji.

I was the only one who started work straight after junior high.

I felt like the only one who was left behind.

During winter, farm work is impossible,

so being born as a farmer meant there was no other choice

than to leave your family behind, and go work in the breweries.

Due to the perseverance of the Noto farmers,

new brewing techniques were developed.

Many celebrated brewers were born in Noto.

However, this was not always by choice.

Farmers of Noto went to work in the breweries

as a means to protect their ancestral land.

I'm going to plant sweet potatoes here.

Farming and fishing.

Many brewers of Noto do both to make a living...

and live their lives close to nature.

We caught a fish!

The people of Noto hold many festivals giving thanks to nature's bounty.

This is a dance performed by children, known as "kiyarage".

The festivals in Noto are celebrated throughout the town.

Noto Peninsula is the birthplace of all Japanese festivals,

according to one theory.

At the Harvest Festival, people drink sake together,

after offering it to the gods.

It is held every year, in spite of the falling population.

Delicious!

Nature connects life.

Food is plentiful in the modern age, but the people of Noto...

never forget their roots.

The sake we produce is a work of art.

Mr. Koichi Sanbai.

Along with Mr. Tempo and Mr. Noguchi,

he has survived the life of a brewer.

The Roaring Craftsman

I forgot my family - even forgot to eat or change clothes.

I think I've done more than most to get this far.

Koichi Sanbai, Naohiko Noguchi,

Shokichi Hase, Saburo Naka.

People call them "The Sake Kings of Noto".

These Super Brewers laid the foundations for today’s refined sake.

They're so famous, they even appear in the comic, "Natsuko's Sake".

The sake of Noto has a simple and rich taste.

We have to pass on what we were taught...

to the next generation.

Mr. Noguchi and Mr. Hase feel the same way.

This year, at the age of 80,

Mr. Noguchi retired from brewing.

He is spending New Years with his wife for the first time in their marriage.

The Sake God's Break

Please, go ahead.

Does it taste good?

Not really!

He has won gold prize 27 times at the Annual Newly Brewed Sake Awards.

He is known as "God of Sake".

After perfecting his skills and winning fame, what does he aim for next?

Teaching the next generation.

Five of my apprentices have become toji masters.

This year, after ten years as apprentice to Mr. Noguchi,

Akiko Fujita made her debut as a toji master at a brewery in Wakayama.

She is the first female master brewer in Noto.

Blossoming After Ten Years

Are you conscious about being a female toji?

Not at all. Should I be more conscious?

People say women have to choose between the happiness

of having a family, or a successful career -

But you really don't have to choose just one.

It's really watery today.

I've been working with him for the past ten years.

In that time, I think I've learned the basics -

human relations and the right way of thinking.

It's never been this stiff before.

You can't turn it at all?

Is it anticlockwise, or clockwise to open it?

Anticlockwise.

It seems that something is wrong with the boiler.

You must let me know if it starts playing up,

before it completely breaks down.

Don't try to fix it by yourself. Talk to me about it, yeah?

Take this side.

Turn your hand the other way.

No, no. You were holding it the wrong way.

I might be spending more time with the guys than their family does

so I want to build an even better relationship with them.

That's what I've got to work on.

Mr. Noguchi!

A surprise comeback at the age of 81.

The Return of the Sake God

Down to the bottom.

He didn't stay retired for long.

Nobody can stop this veteran.

Come in.

He's from Hokuriku Broadcasting Co.

I'm preparing for a report, so I'd like to look around.

"The Master Toji is Back"

His comeback from retirement drew a lot of attention.

"I will make sake even if it kills me."

I'm grateful.

But the sake isn't even finished and there's all this excitement -

It's stressful.

Whatcha doing?

- I'm tying it up. - Let me show you how.

Pull it hard or it won't go flat!

Give it another pull.

Are you even trying to learn?

I have to tell you the same things again and again.

It's pathetic.

These brewers are either newcomers,

or have been trained in a different brewing style.

So it has been very difficult.

At the beginning I kept telling them,

"You guys are useless!" But they're getting better.

My daughter and wife told me,

"Don't go back to work. You'll just cause trouble."

So they didn't even help me get ready for work.

Dinner's ready!

Malted rice, or koji rice, is added to fermented squid.

Extra fermentation improves the flavor and increases the nutritional value.

Thank you.

It's delicious!

Really?

I put it in just now, so don't think there's a difference you know.

It's my dream.

There's still so much I want to do.

What makes people so passionate about brewing sake?

The oldest document about sake in Japan tells this story:

One day, a shrine virgin chewed some kind of grain in her mouth,

spat it into a pot and let it ferment.

This was called "chewed sake".

Opinion is divided about the origin of sake in Japan,

but it's said that malted rice, or koji,

which is a necessary ingredient for sake brewing,

came from China to Japan in Muromachi era together with rice paddy agriculture.

The roots of modern Japanese sake...

This is Saka Shrine in Izumo City, Shimane Prefecture.

There is a legend about sake told around here.

Once upon a time,

there was a rice paddy of the gods.

Sparrows would come to this paddy,

peck the grains of rice, and drink the water of a nearby river.

In October of the Chinese calendar,

myriads of gods from all over Japan gathered in Izumo.

"So, who's fates shall we entwine this year?"

"Who should we tie with who?"

As the gods debated whom they should join together...

"Wait! What's that enticing aroma?"

It was coming from a hollow in a pine tree close to Saka shrine.

Inside the hollow was a milky-white liquid.

The liquid was formed...

from the sparrows' saliva, which contained dissolved rice.

It had fermented inside the hollow.

The gods named this liquid "doburoku",

and held a party lasting 180 days.

According to the "Izumo Fudoki" chronicle,

"180 gods gathered in the land of Saka,"

"held a party for 180 days, and departed."

In a tradition which has continued to the present day,

the Doburoku Festival is held each year at Saka Shrine.

Even the gods were entranced by the charms of sake.

The origins of sake may be miraculous,

but let us look at the modern brewing process.

A special strain of rice called "sakamai" is used.

Sakamai

The starch core of the rice is particularly large.

The rice is milled to reveal this core of starch.

The sake will be called "Honjozo-shu", "Ginjo-shu" and so on,