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A brand new expertise on Intrepid’s Japan: Land of the Rising Solar journey lets travellers go to a centuries-old brewery in Hagi to be taught from one of many nation’s rice-wine masters.
The primary sake I ever tried got here in a tiny vase, from which I tried to drink, a lot to the amusement of my Japanese good friend. ‘It’s good to await the cups first!’ she mentioned, guffawing. Two tiny cups adopted, because the workers member apologised for forgetting them. Other than the diminutive drinkware, my first impression of sake was that it was mild, barely candy and dangerously simple to drink.
That was practically a decade in the past. Since then, as a author dwelling in Japan, I’ve tasted numerous sakes, creating preferences and even a capability to tell apart between just a few manufacturers. Some have a drier style. Others are identified for his or her sweeter flavours. An instance of this kind is Yamaguchi Prefecture’s Yachiyo Shuzo, headed by Kumiko Kaba, one of many nation’s few feminine sake brewers. Powered by centuries of household pedigree, she is taking the traditional drink firmly into the fashionable period, as guests on Intrepid’s Japan: Land of the Rising Solar journey can now uncover once they go to Kaba’s brewery as a part of a brand new expertise for 2026.
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The trailblazer within the household
Sake is Japanese rice wine, constituted of polished rice that’s fermented over a number of weeks. It started as a lot alcohol does: a drink for the gods, made as an providing within the Japanese animistic Shinto faith. The primary reference to sake dates again hundreds of years, showing in a Third-century Chinese language doc describing Japanese mourning practices. It’s a drink that Kaba has grown up with, raised near Yachiyo Shuzo, the brewery that her household based in 1887.
After I communicate to Kaba, she’s within the brewery, based mostly in Hagi, a citadel city in Yamaguchi Prefecture. She tells me she’s the eldest of three sisters, though it was really her center sister who initially had her sights set on taking on the brewery from their father. Kaba as an alternative skilled to be a nutritionist, shifting to Tokyo when she was 18 to check, working at colleges and hospitals. However when the center sister dropped out as a result of a change of coronary heart, Kaba stepped in to helm the household enterprise.
However even whereas she was away, she’d by no means forgotten her roots: ‘After I was in Tokyo, I’d go to sake tastings and at all times had a bottle of nigori (sake) in my fridge.’ In her late 20s, she started to note the quantity of breweries closing as a result of there was nobody to take over. ‘I couldn’t let the household brewery finish with our era. Since sake is Japan’s nationwide drink, I felt a accountability. I wished to do one thing about it.’
She moved again to Hagi in 2017, taking on Yachiyo Shuzo in 2019, on the age of 35. However as an alternative of coaching as a toji (grasp sake brewers) at her household brewery, Kaba took an unprecedented step. ‘If I studied the method at Yachiyo Shuzo, nothing would change,’ she remembers, ‘I wished to deliver one thing new to the corporate.’ As an alternative, she skilled at a special brewery shut by, Sumikawa Shuzo, that acts as a casual incubator for aspiring sake brewers.
‘It’s uncommon for a brewery to coach those that’ll primarily change into its rivals,’ Kaba displays.
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From prohibited to progressive
Although traditionally ladies had been integral to the sake-making course of, by the Edo interval (1603–1868), they had been banned from stepping foot in sake breweries. This got here right down to a concept which regarded the brewery god as a feminine who’d change into jealous if different ladies stepped foot in her area.
Through the Nineteen Nineties, spurred on by an absence of male brewers, the variety of ladies toji elevated. But, it’s solely up to now couple of a long time that sake brewing – and the toji title – has change into accepted for ladies. So far, out of over 1000 breweries in Japan, solely 33 ladies are registered as toji. With such a small proportion, peer help is a necessity.
The Kurajosei Summit is a gaggle for feminine sake brewers that meets yearly. Kaba is a member and the organisation discusses trade challenges, the most recent tendencies, ability swaps and arranges excursions of every others’ breweries. ‘It’s helpful to see how others are doing it,’ Kaba says, ‘I would see one thing at one other brewery that I can use at mine.’ She’s made plenty of contacts. ‘It’s good to have folks to open up to.’
Utilizing her uncommon place as a feminine toji, Kaba has introduced a brand new mind-set about sake to her kura (brewery), beginning by placing her coronary heart into creating her first sake line, Room. It’s since change into a cult favorite, with main sake-review websites akin to Sakenomy and Saketime praising its rounded sweetness and aroma. The key to her success? Kaba is concerned from conception to completion, rigorously contemplating design features in relation to the place and when she needs folks to drink her sake.
‘Somewhat than stopping at style and course of, I additionally thought-about the philosophy of ‘who would drink this and the place?’ Kaba remembers. She set off to share a brand new sort of considering, the place the sake she created was curated to accompany very particular moments of on a regular basis rest, akin to at a meal with pals, or a Friday evening after work. She relayed this by way of a minimal label design, a departure from typical elaborate sake labels.
In 2023, she expanded on this with Pricey, designed to be given as a present. The satan is within the particulars: its packaging is a round reward field, similar to whiskey (hardly ever, if ever, seen within the sake world), and the purple tissue paper on the prime of the bottle will be organized right into a rose. Pricey stemmed from her consideration of ‘Saying cheers with somebody particular on a special day, with a particular sake.’
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Sake enjoyment from begin to end
Kaba recommends having fun with Room and Pricey on the rocks, with somebody you’re near, or heated barely. ‘I’m additionally fairly keen on it with blue cheese,’ she laughs. Blue cheese shares one thing with sake: they’re each fermented. ‘I believe they actually complement one another.’
Kaba enjoys internet hosting excursions of the brewery. When she’s away, her aged mom takes the lead – a mother-daughter affair. Travellers are sometimes stunned on the dwelling, effervescent liquid within the vats, an indication of wholesome fermentation. ‘One other sudden side is the kura itself. Its previous, wood construction makes an actual impression,’ she says.
The brewery is situated within the countryside of Yamaguchi, amongst rolling rice fields, and the excursions provide the chance to get the texture of the complete sake-making course of. ‘Guests can cycle across the rice paddies, the place the rice for the sake is grown, then come to the brewery for the insiders’ tour. This implies which you could expertise the sake course of from the very begin, proper by way of to the tip.’
There’s no higher time to drink sake than after a brewery tour, to essentially recognize the work that’s gone into making the drink, advanced over hundreds of years. And what’s the very best sake to drink in Japan? Effectively, regardless of sake’s rising recognition overseas, Kaba reveals that there’s one sort that’s hardly ever exported: nama sake. Nama sake is a recent, unpasteurised sake. ‘It’s not likely obtainable abroad,’ she says, ‘so I’d love for travellers to drink nama sake whereas in Japan.’
Pattern sake at Yachiyo Shuzo brewery as a part of a brand new expertise to Intrepid’s Japan: Land of the Rising Solar journey.
