The problem with Japanese wine

“Japanese wine” is not an expression to bring joy to faces and make mouths water. I still remember the not-even-so-cheap head-ache stuff I drank when I first came to Japan, more than 25 years ago, and although things have improved a lot, Japan will never be a great wine country. Not because the Japanese can’t make wine – on the contrary, there are many young wine makers who have studied abroad and who are enthusiastically producing some good stuff at small wineries – but the problems are the following:

1. Climatic conditions for the growing of grapes are not good (too humid).
2. There are no vinefera vines native to Japan, although several as the Koshu have been brought here many centuries ago and evolved in a unique way. But the Koshu is a typical table grape, wine made with it lacks body.
3. Grape-growers (who are separate from the wineries) concentrate on table grapes as these command a far higher price than the variety used in winemaking.
4. There is the habit among the larger producers to blend Japanese wines with foreign ones – this does not have to be indicated on the label.


[Daizenji temple, Katsunuma, Yamanashi. Photo Ad Blankestijn]

Wine cultivation in Japan is legendarily linked with Daizenji Temple in Katsunuma, the main grape and wine producing area of the country in Yamanashi Prefecture. The Healing Buddha installed in the temple hall is believed to have brought grapes with medical properties to Katsunuma. And it were the grapes the ancient Japanese were interested in, rather than wine – wine consumption is not documented until the arrival of the Portuguese missionaries in the 16th c.

That wine was called “Tinta-shu,” after the Portuguese word for red, tinto, and it was presented to Japan’s feudal lords, although presumably the missionaries drank most of it themselves. When Japan secluded itself from the world a few decades later, wine was forgotten (if it had made a dent at all) and we have to wait until 1875 before the first attempts at commercial wine making were undertaken on Japanese soil. These were not very successful; the taste was too sour and tannic to suit the Japanese. But the experiment led to the import of European vinifera and American vines as the basis for a new industry.

The first popular wine was manufactured by Suntory in 1907. Called “Akadama Port,” it was not really a wine, but rather a cocktail of grape juice, alcohol, flavorings and sugar. It was very sweet, but suited the Japanese taste of that time. Also the sake drunk in the Meiji period was rather sweet.


[1922 Akadama poster from Wikipedia]

Wine drinking doubled in the 1990s but is still low (though stable) at 4 liters per capita – on the other hand, this is by far the highest consumption in Asia. There are 175 (mostly tiny) domestic wineries in 36 prefectures and domestic sales account for about 36% of sales (2004 figures). This is down from a three-quarters share in 1983.

Japan’s vinicultural industry is still in the first place focused on producing table grapes, rather than great raw materials for wine making. Only one-tenth of the 230,000 tons of grape produced each year goes into wine making. It is difficult to grow grapes in Japan as the weather is too humid. Therefore budodana, overhead wires or platforms are used to expose the grapes to air circulation. Katsunuma is popular because it is a relatively dryer area. Other important areas are Nagano and Yamagata, as well as central Hokkaido, which has no monsoon problems but is on the other hand extremely cold for grape growing.

There are no vinefera vines truly native to Japan, although several have been introduced and evolved in such a unique way that they can be called "Japanese." The most important variety of these is the Koshu, which is an excellent table grape, brought to Japan 1200 years ago along the Silk Road. A wild vine (yamabudo) found in Hokkaido, has been subject to development in the 60s and has been crossed with other varieties to produce larger and richer grapes. Used in wine, it has very little body. Most other vines used are hybrids as Kyoho and Delaware.

Grapes that fail to satisfy requirements as table grapes or that ripen late in season usually end up at wineries for the lower priced local labels.


[Katsunuma in winter, photo by Ad Blankestijn]

The domestic industry has tried to hold its own against foreign wines by using not only imported grapes, but also (more conveniently) imported bulk wine, grape concentrate and must. Labeling laws are (too) lax: as long as some local wine finds its way into the bottle, the rest may be foreign and the wine can still be labeled as a domestic brand!

Happily, the last ten years smaller wineries have stopped this bad habit and are concentrating on lifting the quality of their domestic product. Regional certification systems have been introduced to demonstrate that their wine is 100% from domestic grapes, grown, fermented and bottled in Japan. But these wineries often do not have their own vineyard or only a small one for experimental purposes. They are still dependant on grape-growers who can earn more by producing table grapes (four times as much). Some European grapes as Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot have been planted recently, but these take up still less than 1% of total grape production.

As in the sake world, it are a few big labels who dominate the wine world (Mercian, Suntory, Sapporo, Manns (Kikkoman) and Asahi). These are improving in quality (Mercian stopped blending its more expensive wines in 2002), although the cheaper labels still have foreign produce mixed in. These cheap bottles are rather terrible: they taste as badly sweet as their prices are nicely "sweet." For the best wines in Japan one has to go to the smaller family-owned wineries, again as in the sake world. Some examples of wineries who have a high reputation for quality are: Obuse Domaine Sogga, Hayashi Noen and Izutsu from Nagano, Domaine Takeda from Yamagata, Okuizumo from Shimane, Coco Farm from Tochigi and Kuzumaki from Iwate. But again, after tasting several of these wines, I have to say that most of them still lack body compared to foreign wines. That seems to be a lasting problem in Japan.

For this article information was used from the <a href="The Oxford Companion to Wine, 3rd Edition". See also these Japan Times articles: Japanese wine: unadulterated and ready to go abroad and Japanese wine catching up to its competitors.

Local Sake: Tottori Prefecture

Tottori is a small prefecture as sake goes, with only an annual production of 1,573 kl and 24 breweries. There are no Tottori toji left anymore, usually toji from neighboring Izumo or Tajima come to work here. But that does not mean Tottori sake does not have a character of its own. Like other prefectures facing the open sea (Niigata, Toyama, Kochi) the sake is dry of character, but in contrast it is not light, but a bit heavy on amino acids - it has a pronounced rich taste which it shares with Shimane Prefecture, but which is very different from both Inland Sea facing prefectures in Western japan, Okayama and Hiroshima.

Sake rice developed about 70 years ago in Tottori itself is called Goriki ("strong power") and grown in the Inaba area in the east of the prefecture. Also Gohyakumangoku, Tamasakae and Fukuhana are grown. Tottori is home to Nijuseiki pears and "pear yeast" is used in several "pear ginjos" by different makers. As the kura are all small, sake making still is mainly a handicraft in Tottori.

Here are some of the most famous breweries in Tottori:

Brand: Inabazuru (by Nakagawa Shuzo)
"Crane of Inaba" (Inaba is the old name for eastern Tottori). Company that revived the Goriki sake rice. Founded 1828 in Tottori City. Full and somewhat dry, as the character of the sake of Tottori is. Company has won many prizes at the National New Sake Competition.

Brand: Suwa Izumi (by Suwa Shuzo)
"Well of Suwa." Named after the Suwa Shrine standing at the back of the brewery in Yazu-gun (north of Mimasaka in Okayama); founded in 1859. Fresh, but with astringency and a dry finish. Brews slowly with soft water. Clean air and cold winters. See profile at Esake.

Brand: Takaisami (by Otani Shuzo)
"Bravery of the Hawk." Well-rounded and full-bodied, also uses the Goriki sake rice. Founded 1873. Located between Kurayoshi and Yonago, in western Tottori. The toji is from Izumo and now over eighty, has worked all his life for this company. He has received various awards.

Information from: National Tax Office and Japan Sake Breweries Association
Regional profile gleaned from: Nihonshu no Tekisuto (2): Sanchi no Tokucho to Tsukuritetachi by renowned sake journalist Matsuzaki Haruo (Doyukan, 2005). Some information about individual breweries based on Matsuzaki Haruo, Tastes of 1635 Shinpan Nihonshu Gaidobukku (Shibata Shoten 2003), as well as The Sake Companion by John Gaunter (Running Press) and The Insider's Guide to Sake by Philip Harper (Kodansha International).

Rails of escape: Tohoku Main Line

"How to escape Tokyo by its many train lines, and what to do once you are outside..."

Today we will follow the Tohoku Line, one of the oldest lines in Japan, already dating from the late 19th c. It starts in Ueno and runs 631.3 km to Aomori. The part we follow, to Kuroiso, is also called Utsunomiya Line and it is 163.3 km long. The Tohoku line shares part of its track with the Keihin-Tohoku Line and the Saikyo Line, but it stops at less stations.

The first stop out of Tokyo is Urawa (19 min from Ueno). Now part of the artificially created municipality of Saitama City (est. 2001), Urawa used to be a post station on the Nakasendo Highway and in modern times the capital of Saitama Prefecture. The city of 500,000 is both commercial, industrial and residential, and there is nothing here to keep you except when you are a fan of the Urawa Red Diamonds.


[Torii Hikawa Shrine, Omiya]

Next we come to Saitama Shintoshin (22 min from Ueno), a new station and business area laid out on an old JR switchyard in 2000. "Saitama New Urban Center" calls itself a megapolis so that is not much help if you wanted to get away from Tokyo. It boasts the Saitama Super Arena, restaurants, and shopping, shopping and more shopping. It features futuristic curved white tube-like roofs and unique statues. The Saitama Super Arena is only 3 min from the station and on the 4th and 5th floors you will find the John Lennon Museum. For 1,500 yen you can see 130 articles from Yoko Ono's collection, including John Lennon's guitars, handwritten lyrics, costumes, photos and so on. Great for fans, I suppose.

Moving on, we arrive at Omiya Station (25 min from Ueno). Like Urawa, Omiya (the busiest part of Saitama Prefecture) now is part of Saitama City. There are two interesting things to see here, both in Omiya Park, within walking distance from the station. In the first place the Hikawa Shrine, a major Shinto Shrine. It looks like other Shinto shrines in the Kanto, but it is a peaceful place and the park around it is beautiful with cherry blossoms in spring. On top of that, the Hikawa Shrine gave Omiya, which means "Great Shrine," its name. Secondly, there is the Saitama Prefectural Museum of History and Folklore. Designed by famous architect Maekawa Kunio, it displays items on the history of the prefecture, from the Stone Age to modern times. There is a nice haniwa statue of a man playing a zither on his knee, a copy of a 5th c. local chieftain’s sword, a picture scroll made after the Taiheiki war chronicles and a suit of armor worn by the second Ashikaga lord, Toshimasa. The atrium in the basement is filled with itabi, Buddhist steles, of which many once stood alongside the roads in Saitama. And this all and much more for only 300 yen! Only a pity there is so little English.


[Saitama Prefectural Museum of History and Folklore, Omiya]

Next we have to do some serious riding, for there is nothing to see in Toro, Higashi-Ōmiya, Hasuda, Shiraoka, Shin-Shiraoka, Kuki, Higashi-Washinomiya, Kurihashi, Koga, Nogi, Mamada, Oyama, Koganei, Jichi-idai, Ishibashi and Suzumenomiya. Correct me, if I am mistaken. I would like to note that Koga, the one stop on the Tohoku Main Line in Ibaraki Prefecture, has many old buildings and is known for seal carving, but as it only has a website in Japanese it apparently has decided it is not interesting for foreign visitors. Oyama does have some English, but unfortunately there is nothing to see here. Oyama is Tochigi Prefecture's second largest city and an important railway junction where you can transfer to the Mito and Ryomo lines to delve into deeper inaka, if Oyama isn't enough already.


[Oyaji Temple, Utsunomiya]

So our next stop is Tochigi's prefectural capital, Utsunomiya (1.45 hrs from Ueno by this line). As behooves a capital city, there are some interesting things here and in the vicinity. The best place by far is Oya , half an hour by bus from Utsunomiya. You'll find the interesting Oya Temple here, located partly within a huge cavern, on the walls of which are 10 Buddhist images elaborately carved in relief. The Thousand-handed Kannon, the chief object of worship, is 4 meters high. The carvings are from the Heian Period and among the oldest stone Buddhist images in Japan. But even if you are not into Buddhist carvings, Oya is an interestingly weird spot. The hills here are composed of a kind of tuff stone, soft to work, but durable and beautiful to the eyes. Oya stone, as it has been called after the temple, has been quarried here for centuries. Further on down the road from the temple, a large quarry that is still operated, can be entered. After passing through the dusty museum room, where various implements whose real purpose will only be clear to mining experts are on display, you descend into the bowels of the earth and find yourself in a huge, cathedral-like vault, where over the centuries the rock has been cut away. The most famous use to which Oya stones were put was to clad the surface of the former Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1922.


[Utsunomiya Museum of Art]

The capital of Tochigi Prefecture itself is a rather sprawling city with a few good museums. The Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts is 15 min by bus from Utsunomiya Station and is dedicated to local art and temporary exhibitions; as the standing collection is rather small, aim for one of the latter. The Utsunomiya Museum of Art stands in the outskirts and takes 30 min to reach. This museum, too, is in the first place interesting when there is a good temporary exhibition.

Another museum that can be reached by bus from Utsunomiya (or from Ujiie, farther north) is the Nakagawa-machi Bato Hiroshige Museum. More interesting than the collection of works by Hiroshige and other ukiyo-e artists is the wonderful architecture by Kuma Kengo. Kuma works with local cedar wood, washi paper and stone in a wonderfully understated style. It is a 1.4 hr bus trip from Utsunomiya, so prepare youself for a long sit and check the bus time table at the museum site (English!).


[Unganji Temple, Kurobane]

From Utsunomiya you can also take the Nikko Line to Nikko, but we continue on the Tohoku Main Line passing Okamoto, Hōshakuji, Ujiie, Kamasusaka, Kataoka, Yaita and Nozaki before arriving in Nishi-Nasuno (2.25 hrs from Ueno). From this station you can take a 35-min bus to Kurobane, a magical small town where time seems to have stopped. Basho also liked it as he stayed here for two weeks at the start of the "Narrow Road to the Deep North." The town has many haiku stones with Basho's masterworks carved onto them, a Basho museum ("Basho no Yakata") and a great, even magical temple: Unganji (a short taxi ride out of town). Unganji is completely off the tourist track, and so beautiful it will take your breath away...

In Kuroiso (2.35 hrs from Ueno), our final destination on this trip, you can do two things. For convenience sake, they are both on the same bus line. First, take a Toya bus from the station's west exit to Nasu-Yumoto and get off at Ikkenjaya. A 5-min walk will land you at the Niki Museum of Art, dedicated to the colorful sculptures and paintings of French-American artist Niki de Saint Phalle (1930-2002). This is pure fun, from the “shooting pictures” made by shooting with a rifle at canvasses with plastic pouches of paint hidden beneath plaster or wire mesh to Niki’s later “polyester works,” large and colorful sculptures of plump and often very large women. An example are the joyous sculptures in the Nana series, a sort of archetypal females.


[Jizo statues near the Killing Stone, Nasu]

When you continue by the same bus, you soon arrive at Nasu-Yumoto, where you can visit the Nasu-Yumoto Shrine (dedicated to two healing Shinto deities) and - 10 min away on the mountainside - the Killing Stone, another Basho landmark. It stands in a desolate spot with lots of somber Jizo statues on the slope of the Chausudake volcano and is well worth visiting. The town of Nasu-Yumoto is a nice spa town and as it happens, it is time for a good soak...

Of course this is too much for one day. Utsunomiya alone takes a whole day, as does Kurobane or Nasu-Yumoto. You can speed up things a bit by taking the Tohoku Shinkansen which stops at Utsunomiya and Nasu-Shiobara (between Nisho-Nasuno and Kuroiso).

Gion Festival Dictionary

The Gion Festival held in Kyoto from July 1 to July 29 originates in a ceremony organized in the 9th c. in the Shinsenen Pond, then part of the Imperial Palace. Halberds were carried here and dipped in the water as supplication to the gods to end an infectious disease. The festival was annually repeated and grew in size - in due time the citizens of Kyoto took it over from the court. The famous floats first appeared in the Middle Ages, to please the gods with music, dance and spectacle. The lead float, Naginata Boko, still carries a halberd on the roof as reference to the origin of the festival. It is also the only one that still has a child (Chigo) as representation of the god. There are 32 hoko (carts) and yama (floats) built and maintained for centuries by local associations of merchants in central Kyoto. They are decorated with fabulous carvings and ancient Gobelin tapestries and other drapery. All floats tell a story from Chinese legend or Japanese myth.

• Chigo: "Celestial Child", a kid who rides on the hoko as a representation of the deity. Now only one chigo is left, on the Naginata Float which opens the procession. It is his task to cut the rope hanging across the street with a sword at the beginning of the Grand Parade on July 17. The chigo wears a distinctive costume and headdress. Some Chigo of other floats walk along in the procession.
  
  
  [Chigo in the parade. Photo Ad Blankestijn]
  
• Chigo Shasan: on July 13 the Chigo ("Celestial Child") who rides on the Naginata float is taken on horseback to the Yasaka Shrine to receive the blessings of the deity. Wearing a tall court headdresses and traditional robe, at the shrine he receives the fifth court rank.
• Chimaki: a glutinous rice cake wrapped in a bamboo leaf and tied with straw. In the Gion Matsuri the rice is left out and the "packaging" only is sold to be tied above the front door of your house as a talisman. A popular souvenir of the festival, sold for example during Yoi-Matsuri by the groups who attend to the floats.
• Gion Bayashi: the festival music played by flute, drums and bells by musicians sitting on the second floor of the floats. The basic rhythm is kon-chiki-chin, on which countless variations are improvised. Has origins in Noh music.
  
  
  [Gion Bayashi musicians on the hoko cart. Photo Ad Blankestijn]
  
• Goryo-e: "Assembly of Resentful　Spirits," the origin of the Gion Festival is a ceremony sponsored by Emperor Seiwa to drive out an epidemic in 869. Goryo-e was held in the Shinsenen Pond, then part of the Imperial Palace. Halberds were carried here and dipped in the water as supplication to the gods to end an infectious disease. Goryo were ghostly beings that brought on disaster and infectuous diseases. They could be the spirits of people who died with unresolved resentment or otherwise a sort of "plague kami" who caused epidemics. Goryo-e rituals were held to appease goryo or to send them away in order to prevent disease.
• Hanagasa Procession: 10 large umbrellas attended by geisha are paraded through the streets on July 24. Leaves at 10:00 from in front of the City Hall at Oike, then proceeds via Teramachi and Shijo to the Yasaka Shrine where it arrives at 11:30 for the Sagi-Mai (Heron Dance). Comes in place of a second Float Parade originally held on this day with 9 floats to celebrate the return of the omikoshi with the deity from the temporary shrine (otabisho) to the Yasaka Shrine. This second float procession was for practical reasons discontinued in 1965 and merged with the float procession on July 17 (which originally only consisted of about 20 floats).
• Hoko: Hoko floats are massive two-storied carts pulled by teams of up to fifty persons. They can weigh 10 tons. Upstairs 18 musicians play Gion Bayashi music. The hoko have a roof on top of which stands a long, mast-like pole. The branches attached to it are symbolic resting places for the deities.
  
  
  [Hoko cart coming down Kawaramachi street. Photo Ad Blankestijn]
  
• Hoko Hikihajime (Yama kakizome): Trial pull of the cart-type floats from 12 to 15 July by the children of each township. At this time the Gion Bayashi music also starts up.
• Hoko Tate (Yama Tate): The 32 floats are assembled in the various localities using traditional methods from 10 to 13 July. Instead of nails, rope lashings are employed. First the frame is assembled and then the float is decorated with brocades and tapestries. In the case of the large Hoko carts, a gangway is made to the second floor of the nearby house.
  
  
  [Building a hoko cart. Photo Ad Blankestijn]
  
• Imetake Tate: On July 15 two bamboo poles with a sacred rope strung between them are set up on Shijodori near Fuyacho. Cutting the rope on July 17 heralds the start of the float procession.
• Jinjisumi Hokokusai: on July 29 the Gion Festival concludes with a rite of reporting to the kami
• Kippu-iri: Between July 1 and July 5 a meeting is held to determine and arrange the rites and rituals for the festival, as well as discuss duties and procedures.
• Kuji-tori: on July 2 priests from the Yasaka Shrine and city officials draw lots to determine the order of the floats in the parade. Eight floats, including the Naginata Boko which always rides first, have fixed positions so they are not included.
• Mikoshi: the Yasaka shrine possesses three mikoshi, for its three deities: the main one (Nakagoza) dedicated to Susano-o no Mikoto, the next one to his wife Kushi-Inada Hime no Mikoto (Higashigoza) and the third one to his sons, collectively called Yahashira no Mikogami (Nishigoza).
  
  
  [Mikoshi leaving the Yasaka Shrine. Photo Ad Blankestijn]
  
• Mikoshi-arai: on July 10 a Cleansing Ceremony of the mikoshi of the Yasaka Shrine is held. Priests carry the main mikoshi (Susano-o no Mikoto) to the Shijo Bridge where they purify it by pouring water from the Kamo River on it using sacred sakaki branches. The mikoshi leaves the Yasaka Shrine at 19:00, arrives at the bridge at 20:00 and returns at the shrine at 20:45.
  On July 28, at the end of the festival, the mikoshi is again purified in the Kamo River before being put in storage at the shrine.
• Nagoshi-sai: on July 31 a large ring made of various grasses is set up in the grounds of the Yasaka Shrine and people pass through it to cleanse their spirit and receive protection from illness. See my post on Nagoshi no harae.
• Oide (Mikoshi Matsuri): A sacred procession (shinko) of the three mikoshi of the Yasaka Shrine is held in the evening of the 17th. Start is at about 18:00. They follow somewhat different routes (generally via Shijo, Kiyamachi, Sanjo, Oike, Teramachi and Kawaramachi) to the Otabisho (which they reach between 21:00 and 21:30) on Shijodori where they will stay for a week.
  
  
  [Mikoshi parading through the streets. Photo Ad Blankestijn]
  
• Okaeri (Kankosai): the mirror procession of Oide, in which the three mikoshi return on July 24 from the Otabisho at Shijodori to the Yasaka Shrine. Leaving at 17:00, they weave their way through the parishioner's wards and return after 21:00 to the Yasaka Shrine.
• Omukae Chochin: on July 10 men dressed in formal kimono carrying bamboo poles with lanterns leave the Yasaka Shrine at 16:30. They arrive at the City hall on Oikedori at 17:30 where children perform various dances. The procession which now contains people in various costumes as well as geisha loops back through town to the Yasaka Shrine to meet the mikoshi returning from its purification at 20:45 (see Mikoshi-arai). This is a modern addition to the festival.
• Otabisho: the Yasaka Shrine stands outside what used to be Kyoto proper, on the east bank of the Kamo River. During the festival the deities of the shrine were welcomed to the city center where also the ujiko, the parishioners, lived. Therefore "temporary abodes" were set up. Today there is one Otabisho on Shijodori just east of Teramachi - near a busy bus stop.
• Sagimai: "Heron Dance." Held on July 16 at 18:00 in the courtyard of the Yasaka Shrine.
• Tsujimawashi: The huge carts have no steering mechanism so turning corners is a major operation called Tsujimawashi. The front wheels are bound tight so that they jam, after which the cart is pulled sideways over wet bamboo slats. This a time-consuming and presumably dangerous operation.
  
  
  [Tsujimawashi at the corner of Kawaramachi and Oike. Photo Ad Blankestijn]
  
• Yama: Yama floats were once carried but are so heavy that they now move on hidden wheels. They are decorated with scenes from Chinese and Japanese history and mythology. They often bear a pine tree, a shrine, and large dolls.
  
  
  [A "yama" float - this is the Carp Float. Photo Ad Blankestijn]
  
• Yamaboko Junko: the highlight of the Gion festival is the Float Procession which starts at 9:00 on July 17 when the Naginata Float starts moving. At Fuyacho Street the Chigo cuts the sacred rope. The other floats join in the predetermined order from the places in their communities where they have been built up. A total of 32 floats make a tour around the neighborhood, through Shijodori, Kawaramachidori, Oikedori and back through the narrower Shinmachidori. The route is modern and has been determined based on traffic problems and the enormous number of spectators.
• Yasaka Shrine: Shrine (and in the past, also Buddhist temple complex) dedicated to Susanoo no Mikoto, the wild younger brother of the Sun Goddess who became a healing kami, and his avatar, the Indian guardian deity Gozutenno. Gozutenno was the guardian of Gion Shoja (the Jetavana monastery) which led to the name "Gion" for shrine and festival. The shrine/temple complex originated in either the 9th or 10th c. In 926 an ascetic monk set up a Tenjin hall here.
  
  
  [Main Hall Yasaka Shrine. Photo Ad Blankestijn]
  
  Gion's Goryo-e (a ceremony driving out vengeful spirits) date back to the latter half of the 10th c. They attracted such a fervent following among Kyoto residents that it soon became the "unique festival" (reisai) of the shrine. They were also sponsored by the court. The custom of using floats where people dressed up in costumes, played music and danced, was characteristic of the festival. Originally meant to please and appease the kami, later it became a spectacle for the enjoyment of the viewers. In the Muromachi Period, the festival was adopted by the residents (machishu) of Kyoto's commercial districts. When the Meiji government instituted its "kami and Buddha separation" (shinbutsu bunri) policy, the shrine-temple complex Gion Kanjinin was renamed "Yasaka Jinja."
• Yoi-Yama: From 14-16 July the Yoi-Matsuri is held. Gion-bayashi music fills the air. Families in the localities where the carts and floats stand, open their houses and shops to show of heirlooms (therefore Yoi-Matsuri is also called "Screen Festival, " Byobu Matsuri"). The floats are decorated with lanterns, human figures and other ornaments, and children sell amulets such as chimaki. The festival if the 15th is called Yoi-Yoi-Yama and that of the 14th Yoi-Yoi-Yoi-Yama.
  
  
  [Lanterns strung on a hoko cart during Yoi-Matsuri. Photo Ad Blankestijn]

Reference materials: Kyoto Gion Matsuri Te-cho (Kawara Shoten, 2007); Encyclopedia of Shinto; Kyoto Visitor's Guide, July 1990; Kyoto Shinbun.

See my Set of Gion Festival photos on Flickr. These photos were taken as slides in 1989 (do you recognize the old Kyoto Hotel?) and scanned.

Hamo, Kyoto Summer Dish

A particular fish called hamo is so popular in summer in Kyoto, that the Gion Festival (held tomorrow, July 17) is even called "Hamo Matsuri."

Hamo is Daggertooth Pike-Conger, a white-meat fish from the eel family. As its English name reveals, it has a deep ripped mouth with sharp teeth at the upper and lower parts of the jaw. The name hamo comes from hamu, an old term for eating, because the fish uses its sharp teeth to eat almost anything from shrimps and crabs to small fish.

Hamo is caught in the warm waters of the Japanese Inland Sea, where it lives at the soft bottom or in estuaries. It can grow to two meters, but in practice, only fish up to one meter are used in restaurants. It is caught between May and October and is at its best in July. Large quantities of the fish are consumed around this time. Like eel, hamo contains much fat and is believed to have invigorating qualities. It indeed helps you get back some appetite under the hot and humid summer sky that in July hangs like a lead blanket over Kyoto.


[Tempura of hamo with shiso or perilla leaves. Photo Ad Blankestijn]

Hamo also has a mild and light flavor - in fact, it tastes quite refined. Despite that, except in Kyoto (and Osaka, where it is eaten around the time of the Tenjin Festival, also in July), hamo is not a popular fish in the rest of Japan. The reason is that it has extremely hard and fine bones to the incredible number of 3,500 in all, making it in the first place an impossible item for home cooking. You need a specialist to bone it, using a special hamokiri-bocho knife.

Besides its restorative qualities, which can after all also be enjoyed by eating ordinary eel, there is a special reason why hamo is so popular in Kyoto. That is because the hardy pike conger is able to survive for longer periods compared to other fish after it has been caught. Kyoto is a land-locked city and in the past fresh sea fish could not be brought there. But hamo formed an exception and therefore was warmly welcomed in Kyoto, despite the difficulty of preparing it. And perhaps that challenge was a not a disadvantage at all, as it gave Kyoto's proud chefs a chance to show off their skills! To remove the tiny bones, hamo has to be sliced very thinly without cutting the flesh in half.

Hamo is enjoyed in the following forms:

• As hama-otoshi, boiled pike conger: the eel is cut into bite-sized pieces and served on top of ice in glass dishes or wooden tubs
• As kabayaki, grilled on top of charcoal and then glazed with a sweet soy sauce
• Hamozushi, as topping on sushi. In this case either fresh hamo or kabayaki is used
• As tempura, sometimes wrapped in a shiso leaf
• In vinegared dishes (sunomono)
• In clear soup (osumashi, suimono)

In summer, hamo is served in upscale ryotei in Kyoto. But you can also taste it in a more economical way: around this time department stores and supermarkets will sell delicious hamozushi, and in the sozai section, you can find hamo tempura!

Also see this post in KyotoFoodie.

Local sake: Okayama Prefecture

Okayama is a beautiful green land, both the capital and nearby Kurashiki are great "museum cities." Okayama City also is an convenient traffic link, because from here the train leaves for Shikoku via the Seto Ohashi Bridge, and in the opposite direction the railways provide a link to Shimane and Matsue on the Japan Sea Coast.

As sake goes, the area is in the first place famous as the homeland of Omachi sake rice, the only sake rice that was discovered in the wild in the mid-19th c. and not grown by crossing. Sake rice is rice with extra large grains that contains a so-called "white heart" (shinpaku"), an area of pure starch. It stands taller than ordinary rice (Omachi becomes over one meter) and is therefore difficult to grow.

As sake rice contains more of the pure starch needed for sake brewing, it is possible to brew better and purer sake with it, containing less off-flavors. The price is about three times that of ordinary rice. It is therefore almost always used for premium sake. Omachi sake rice is grown in the northern part of Okayama City. The prefecture also grows quite a lot of Yamada Nishiki, the sake rice developed in the 1930s in neighboring Hyogo Prefecture which is almost always used for the super premium sake "daiginjo."

Sake brewed with Yamada Nishiki has a sharp and clean taste, with a well-defined acidity, while sake brewed with Omachi rice is softer and rounder; it possesses a good body.


[Tsuji Honten of Gozenshu fame]

Sake from Okayama tastes clean but is also a bit on the sweet side, full in flavor but not heavy. Usually, sake from the area along the Inland Sea with its warm and mild climate is more clean and sweet, while sake from the inland area of the Chugoku mountains with its cold winters and loads of snow (of old called Mimasaka) tends to be fuller in taste.

There are about 75 breweries in the prefecture – most are small. The total amount of sake produced annually is only 4,814 kiloliters.

Okayama also has its own group of toji, the Bitchu toji who come from the area north of the line Takahashi-Kasaoka. They work only inside the prefecture and are known for their soft and easily drinkable sake.

Here are some of the most famous breweries in Okayama:

Brand: Bizen no Sake Hitosuji (by Toshimori Shuzo).
This brewery stands right in the center of Omachi rice territory and works together with local farmers to keep the rice flow going. As the Omachi rice from which it is made, it has a solid and earthy taste, and its junmai tastes good warm.

Brand: Chikurin, Kamo no Midori (by Marumoto Shuzo).
Stands in Asaguchi, on the Sanyo Main line that runs near the coast. Several traditional buildings of the brewery have been listed as cultural assets. Mildly sweet, typical for the sake found on the coast in Okayama.

Brand: Yorokobi no Izumi (by Nakada Shuzo)
Brewery from the town with classical storehouses, Kurashiki. Light but subtly rich. Its top sake, Kyokuchi, comes in two types, one made with Omachi, the other with Yamada Nishiki.

Brand: Gozenshu (by Tsuji Honten).
This brewery stands in the beautiful historic town of Katsuyama, in the Mimasaka area of the Chugoku mountains. Relatively light taste, although with a rich undertone. Makes everything from elegant daiginjos (Kei, Ho-o) to more sturdy junmai (Mimasaka). Also interesting experiments, for example with the sweet sake called Jun into which some amazake has been blended.

Information from: National Tax Office and Japan Sake Breweries Association
Regional profile gleaned from: Nihonshu no Tekisuto (2): Sanchi no Tokucho to Tsukuritetachi by renowned sake journalist Matsuzaki Haruo (Doyukan, 2005). Some information about individual breweries based on Matsuzaki Haruo, Tastes of 1635 Shinpan Nihonshu Gaidobukku (Shibata Shoten 2003), as well as The Sake Companion by John Gaunter (Running Press) and The Insider's Guide to Sake by Philip Harper (Kodansha International).
Also see John Gauntner's take on Okayama sake

.

Evading the bad years

Thanks to the Yin and Yang calculations brought from China, Shinto has adopted a system of yakudoshi, or inauspicious years. In the past, mysterious calculations were necessary, but now the priests have decided that all women have their most inauspicious year when they are 33 years of age, and men when they are 42. People of these ages visit their shrine for a ceremony or at least buy a protective amulet (omamori).

Below is a photo of a sign in the Fujinomori Shrine asking attention for the bad years. These are counted as kazuedoshi, that is in the old system where you were already one year old at birth (meaning you have to add one year to all these figures - 33 is in fact 34, and 42 is 43, etc.). As people are not used to this system anymore, the years of birth are written behind them.



The inauspicious years are in red; also the year before and after that age is "bad." In addition, for men 25 and 61 are weak years, and for women 19 and 37.

It is all totally unscientific, and I don't know how many people still fall for it. Sometimes Japanese just like to take part for the fun of it without asking themselves such difficult questions. My Japanese family strongly disliked it. But when a religious institution finds a way of making money from the gullible, it will cling to it for ever!

Summer cleansing of the spirit

Nagoshi no Harae refers to the "great purification" (oharae) that used to be performed on the last day of the sixth month of the lunar calendar. This goes back to a custom at the imperial court, but it in later ages it became especially popular among Kyoto's townspeople.


[Chinowa in the Fujinomori Shrine, Kyoto]

For this rite, large rings made of miscanthus reed (chinowa) are set up in the grounds of shrines. By passing through the reed gate (the summer ring) worshippers are purified and get rid of any defilements (kegare). Thus they are protected from misfortune. The custom also existed of passing the defilement on to a paper or straw puppet and throwing this away in a river or the sea.

The rite was originally also held at the end of December, but that one has been given up long ago, perhaps because there are already other purification ceremonies at the New Year. In contrast, the Nagoshi no Harae has become bigger and nowadays most shrines put up the chinowa for the whole month of June.

Fujinomori Shrine, Kyoto

The Fujinomori Shrine in the Fushimi Ward of Kyoto is associated with horses and horse racing - its main festival on May 5 features kake-uma (showing military arts on horseback). The deities are militant gods and therefore Fujinomori was in the past popular with warriors.


[Shrine grounds, Fujinomori Jinja]

The shrine rather naively claims a history of 1,800 years, all the way back to Empress Jingu who is one of its present deities. Empress Jingu was a rather belligerent female, who led a naval expedition to attack Korea, but unfortunately for the shrine, she never existed. Her story is all pure myth, as are the banners and weapons she is supposed to have buried here after her victorious return from the continent.


[Detail of the Main Hall, Fujinomori Jinja]

Historical evidence shows rather that the Fujinomori Shrine was established in the 15th c. by the merger of a few local shrines in this area. About those original shrines, nothing is known, but if they had been famous, they would have figured in the 10th century Engishiki list of important shrines. So it is safe to assume this shrine was born from medieval warrior society, and that fits its character.


[Statue of sinister samurai, Fujinomori Jinja]

The grounds are spacious, but there are no historical buildings except the Main Hall which dates from 1712 and was apparently moved here from the Palace. The shrine is known for its hydrangeas, which flower in June in two gardens attached to the shrine.


[Holy water, Fujinomori Jinja. The water is called "Fuji" or unequaled and will make people who drink it victorious]

See more pictures on my Flickr Stream.

A 5-minute walk from JR Fujinomori Station on the JR Nara Line, or a 7-minute walk from Sumizome Station on the Keihan Line

Hydrangea in the Fujinomori Shrine, Kyoto

In June, ajisai (hydrangeas) pop up everywhere in Japan: standing defiant along the roadside, peeping out of small private gardens, clustering in temple courtyards and parks.


[Hydrangeas like splashes of purple on the green leaves]

This year, at the end of June, I went to the Fujinomori Shrine in the Fushimi ward in Kyoto, a lesser-known spot as ajisai watching goes. But there was nothing wrong with it. Although the shrine stands in a busy residential district, Fukakusa, the grounds are extensive. There are two hydrangea gardens, one to the left of the approach to the shrine, the other at the back.


[White ghosts]

Narrow paths lead through these gardens and the flowers are so high that you can't see other viewers, let alone be disturbed by the houses and parking lots around the shrine.


[Lace cap variety hydrangea in the Fujinomori Shrine, Kyoto. In Japanese lace caps are called Gaku Ajisai or "picture frame hydrangeas."]

The hydrangea gardens are open in June and July; in the middle of June there is also the Hydrangea Festival, but I avoided this for fear of crowds. It would only have meant some additional koto (Japanese zither) music, anyway. There were still enough beautiful hydrangea to make the visit a rewarding experience.


[Blue ghosts]

See more photos on my Flickr stream.

A 5-minute walk from JR Fujinomori Station on the JR Nara Line, or a 7-minute walk from Sumizome Station on the Keihan Line