December 26, 2024

Akahata editorial (excerpts)

Japan’s “traditional knowledge and skills of sake making with 'koji' mold” was recently registered on UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list. What is needed is to succeed and further develop the know-how of producing traditional alcoholic drinks, such as sake and “shochu” distilled spirits, as Japan’s cultural asset.

However, for today’s sake-brewing, global warming and water pollution resulted from environmental destruction, the luck of successors to aging brewmasters, and above all, the decline in Japan’s agricultural production are major problems.

The Japan Family Famers Movement (Nouminren) demanded that the government, based on the UNESCO treaty for safeguarding the intangible cultural heritage, implement necessary measures that encourage farmers, sake brewers, and consumers to work together to protect local sake brewing.

When considering the history of Japan’s sake, we must remember the relationship between sake and war.

It is said that the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese wars were financed largely by tax revenue from alcoholic beverages. In order to cover the fiscal demands that swelled since the beginning of the wars, the liquor tax was increased. In 1899, liquor tax revenue accounted for 40%, the largest portion of the total. Since then, for nearly 40 years, the liquor tax has played a central role in Japan’s revenue system.

During the Sino-Japanese war, the Imperial government controlled sake production and reduced the quality of sake by adding additives to increase the volume threefold.

The 1945 Battle of Okinawa in the last stages of WWII delivered a devastating blow to Okinawa’s traditional liquor, “Awamori”. In the battle, Naha’s Shuri area where many Awamori breweries were operating was heavily bombed because the Imperial Japanese Army headquarter was there. It was believed that Awamori’s vital ingredient black “koji” mold became unavailable.

Tsuchiya Saneyuki, one of persons who worked to revive Awamori, in a book titled, “The Battle of Okinawa and Ryukyu Awamori” stated, “If it had not been for that war, we would have been able to taste vintage Awamori aged more than 200 and 300 years old.”

What the “traditional sake-making” represents is not only the need to preserve Japan’s nature and culture, but also the importance of keeping Japan peaceful.