The U.S. National Sake Appraisal is the oldest sake competition conducted outside Japan. It has four categories: Daiginjo A (rice polishing ratio 40% or less), Daiginjo B (rice polishing ratio 50% or ...

White koji mold was discovered in 1924 as a mutation from black koji mold by Gen-ichiro Kawachi, the father of modern shochu, when he was researching on koji molds in the hope of making more refreshin...

Now it is quite natural that sake is contained in 1-sho (1.8 litter) or 4-go (720ml) bottles, but it was not until Meiji era (1868-1912) that 1-sho bottles were introduced. Before then, wooden casks h...

Black koji mold is mainly used in Kyushu region where there are many shochu breweries. It was discovered in 1910 in the koji mold of awamori by Gen-ichiro Kawachi, a researcher who had been searching ...

Sake is mostly contained in glass bottles and paper packs, but until around 1900, casks were commonly used. Generally, sake stores procured sake to sell it by volume. They measured the volume of sake ...

Koji plays an important role in sake brewing such as saccharification of starch. The mold used for koji is a type of fungus found only in East Asia, it has long been an integral part of Japanese food ...

In the world’s various workplaces, there are work songs and task songs which people sing with their peers and colleagues. Sake breweries have brewing songs, too. In old days, workers’ sonorous singing...

Among sake rice that is said to have more than 100 varieties, Yamada-Nishiki is one of the most suitable for sake brewing and has the highest reputation and yield. This sake rice has been cultivated i...

The history of izakaya is said to begin from the early (Genroku era:1688-1704) to the middle of Edo period, around1716-1789. Before then, people used to buy sake in liquor stores and brought it back i...

The most popular sake rice produced in Hiroshima Prefecture is the original Hattan type. This root comes from a variety called Hattanso that used to be cultivated by progressive farmers in Hiroshima i...