What sake is
In Japan, the word sake can mean alcoholic drinks in general, while the rice wine known abroad as sake is usually called nihonshu, “Japanese alcohol.” It is made from rice, water, koji and yeast. This article looks at it as part of Japanese culture and history: how it is made, what role it plays in ritual and the seasonal year, and what the vocabulary means. It is not a recommendation to drink. Alcohol carries health and safety risks, and in Japan the legal drinking age remains 20.
Rice, water and koji
The starting point is rice, steamed rather than boiled. Brewing rice is often a different variety from the rice eaten at the table, with larger grains and a starchy core. Before brewing, the rice is polished to remove the outer layers, which contain proteins and oils that can affect flavor. The degree of polishing is one of the factors in how sake is classified.
Water matters too, because it makes up most of the finished drink. Breweries traditionally settled near good sources, and the mineral content of local water has often been cited as influencing the style of a region’s sake. The statements made about this are usually general, and the details are best left to specialists.
Next comes koji, the mold described in the discussion of fermented seasonings. It is grown on part of the steamed rice and breaks starch into sugars. Yeast then converts the sugars into alcohol. In sake brewing, these two processes happen at the same time in the same tank, which is called parallel fermentation. This differs from beer, where starch is converted to sugar first in a separate step, and it helps explain why sake can reach a higher alcohol content than most other brewed drinks, often around 15 percent before dilution.
The brewing season traditionally ran through the cold months, because low temperatures allow slow, controlled fermentation. The head brewer is called a toji, and the job traditionally rested on knowledge passed between workers, often gathered from farming regions during the winter off-season. Some modern breweries operate year-round with temperature control.
Common terms
Labels use many terms, and a few are worth knowing in outline.
- Junmai indicates sake made from only rice, water, koji and yeast, without added brewer’s alcohol.
- Ginjo and daiginjo refer to sake made with more highly polished rice and a careful, cool brewing style.
- Nigori is cloudy sake with some rice sediment left in.
- Namazake is sake that has not been pasteurized.
The details of the categories are defined by rules that have changed over time, so this list is only a starting point.
Sake and the sacred
Sake has long been tied to Shinto. Rice is regarded as a sacred crop, and sake made from it is a standard offering to the kami, the deities or spirits of Shinto belief. At Shinto shrines, rice wine is offered in ceremonies, and barrels of sake are often stacked and displayed as gifts from breweries and communities. In many rites, those present take a small sip of the offered sake after the ceremony, a custom known as naorai, which expresses the idea of sharing in the offering.
Sake also appears in festivals. In some places, community events involve carrying portable shrines through the streets, and drinks and offerings are shared in the surrounding celebrations. Regional customs vary a good deal, so what is true in one town may not be in another.
The cup in ceremony
Shared cups mark important moments. At a traditional Shinto wedding, the couple takes sips from stacked cups in a ritual known as san-san-kudo, often translated as “three-three-nine.” The act symbolizes the joining of two people and, in many descriptions, two families. At New Year, some households drink toso, a spiced sake, as part of the holiday, and in modern celebrations, barrels are ceremonially opened with wooden mallets in a custom known as kagami biraki, a symbolic gesture of good fortune and beginning.
These customs show the ritual weight of the cup. In ceremony, the point is not the drink but the act of sharing something that links people with each other and with the sacred.
Brewery signs and the cycle of the year
A visible symbol of sake culture is the sugidama, a ball of cedar branches hung outside a brewery. It is traditionally said to be hung when the new sake is pressed and to turn brown as the season passes, a sort of sign of the age of the brew. Its use shows how sake is tied to the calendar of rice planting, harvest and winter brewing, like other forms of food and drink tied to the yearly calendar.
Tableware and setting
Sake is served in several traditional vessels: a small flask called tokkuri and small cups called ochoko or sakazuki. These are often ceramic, and regional kilns commonly make them, with styles from rough and earthy to refined. Shallow wooden cups and small square cedar boxes are used too. The shape and material of the vessels are part of the experience of a meal, and they reflect the care taken with everyday tableware.
A note on perspective
Like all food and drink traditions, sake culture has changed over time. Consumption patterns shift, and many people in Japan drink little or none. The cultural meaning of sake, however, remains visible in shrines, weddings and festivals, and in the language of rice and water that makes up much of the country’s agricultural heritage.