Japan Navigator

The last weeks I have been introducing regional sake from the Kansai area: from Kyoto, Hyogo, Osaka, Nara, Shiga and Wakayama (I have recently fine-tuned all articles, for example by adding more information about individual breweries as well as translations of the sake label names, so you may want to have another look!).

[Miyamizu wells, Nishinomiya]

Kansai is the area where sake originated: in the sacred drink offered to the deity of the Miwa Shrine in Nara, in the brewery within the palace in Heian times (in Kyoto), in the temple breweries as Shoryakuji in Nara which invented the yeast starter, and Amanosan Kongoji in Osaka, and in the Matsuo Shrine as protector of the craft of sake brewing.

The Kansai is a large area, with very different tasting sakes. One of the reasons is in the very different types of water: the hard water of Nada (Kobe and Nishinomiya with their use of Miyamizu) and the soft water of Fushimi (Kyoto) and also of Shiga and to a certain extent, Nara.

[Miyamizu wells, Nishinomiya]

By the way, I recently visited the Miyamizu area south of Nishinomiya Hanshin station to take some pictures, which I have added to this post. Read the story of Miyamizu in my post on Hyogo sake.

Kansai is also the domain of the Big Names, making it by far the largest sake producing area of Japan: Geikkeikan, Hakutsuru, Ozeki, Shochikubai, Nihonsakari, Kikumasamune, Kizakura, Hakushika, Shirayuki, and Kenbishi, to name the ten largest ones in order of size. Together these ten breweries have a share of 37% of the total sake market of Japan… Happily, although they are still producing cheap bulk sakes, they have left the dead end of tasteless sake with additions of not only alcohol, but also sugar and other stuff that does not belong. In fact, even “ordinary” (non-premium) sake is getting better these days (even Ozeki sells a cup sake of Honjozo quality).

[Miyamizu monument, Nishinomiya]

But the real interest is in the many small breweries doing their best to excel in premium sake: for example, Tama no Hikari, Momo no Shizuku, Shotoku and Tsuki no Katsura in Kyoto; Niwa no Choju in Shiga; Rikyubai in Osaka; Ume no Yado and Harushika in Nara; Kuroushi in Wakayama; and Kotsuzumi, Taki no Koi, Tatsuriki and Fukuju in Hyogo.

In the coming weeks I will continue with a survey of the regional sakes of Western Japan (Chugoku area): Okayama, Hiroshima, Tottori, Shimane and Yamaguchi.