Japan’s Okaya At her family’s 150-year-old sake brewery, Koten, which is tucked away in the foothills of the Japanese Alps, Mie Takahashi, a Japanese sake brewer, checks the temperature of the mixture fermenting shortly after daybreak.
She uses a long paddle to thoroughly mix the more than 3,000 liters of bubbling soup made of steamed rice, water, and a rice mold called koji while standing on an uneven, narrow wooden platform above the tank.
According to 43-year-old Takahashi, the morning hours are essential for brewing sake. Her brewery is located in the sake-producing prefecture of Nagano.
One of the few female toji, or master sake brewers, is Takahashi. Out of over a thousand breweries across the country, only 33 female toji are registered with the Toji Guild Association in Japan.
That was over a few decades ago. Sake production was mostly closed to women until the end of World War II.
Sake making has over a thousand years of history and is deeply rooted in traditional Shintoism in Japan.
However, during the Edo period (1603–1868), when the booze started to be mass manufactured, an unwritten law prohibited women from working in breweries.
The Koten sake brewery’s shop in Okaya, central Japan.AP
The ban’s justifications are still unknown. According to Yasuyuki Kishi, vice director of the Sakeology Center at Niigata University, one notion is that women were barred from sacred locations because they were deemed filthy due to menstruation.
Another possibility, he said, is that perilous duties and a lot of heavy labor were involved in the bulk production of sake. Thus, the position was viewed as unsuitable for women.
But more women are now able to work in sake production as a result of the slow dismantling of gender restrictions and a declining labor force brought on by Japan’s rapidly aging population.
The sector is still mostly controlled by men. However, regardless of a person’s gender, I believe that people today concentrate on whether they have the passion to accomplish it, Takahashi added.
She thinks that the brewery’s mechanization is also contributing to the reduction of the gender gap. At Koten, hundreds of pounds of steamed rice are lifted in batches by a crane and placed onto a cooling conveyor. The rice is then sucked via a pipe and taken to a different area specifically for growing koji.
According to Takahashi, all of this would have been completed by hand in the past. Women may now perform additional duties thanks to machines.
Steamed rice is fermented with koji mold, which turns starch into sugar, to make sake, also known as nihonshu. Earlier this month, UNESCO acknowledged the traditional brewing method as part of its Intangible Cultural Heritage.
Takahashi was forbidden entry to her family’s brewery when she was a child. However, she was enthralled with the fermentation process when she was given her first tour of the brewery on her fifteenth birthday.
I witnessed it erupting. According to Takahashi, who was not yet of legal drinking age, it was intriguing to discover that the bubbles were caused by invisible microorganisms. It had a wonderful scent. The fact that only rice and water were needed to make this delicious, fragrant sake astounded me. I decided to give creating it myself a shot.
She attended Tokyo University of Agriculture to obtain a degree in fermentation science. She made the decision to go back home and become a master brewer after graduating. After ten years of training under her predecessor’s tutelage, she joined her family brewery at the age of thirty-four as a toji.
In a temperature-controlled room at her Koten sake brewery in Okaya, central Japan, sake maker Mie Takahashi makes sake by steaming rice with koji mold.AP
Production increases as Takahashi manages a group of seasonal employees as the brewery moves into the winter peak season. Mixing hundreds of liters of brew and moving and flipping massive quantities of heavy cooked rice are labor-intensive tasks. The master brewer must possess the expertise and know-how to meticulously regulate the ideal growth of koji mold, which requires constant observation.
Takahashi catches up with the team as they hand-mix koji rice side by side in a sweltering, muggy chamber, managing to foster togetherness in spite of the intensity.
According to Takahashi, “I was taught that getting along with your team is the most important thing.” It is often said that a stressful atmosphere at the brewery will result in a harsh sake, whereas a positive atmosphere will result in a smooth sake.
At her Koten sake brewery in Okaya, central Japan, sake maker Mie Takahashi stirs a mixture of water, koji mold, and cooked rice in a tank.AP
The Japanese sake business, which has been steadily declining since its height in the 1970s, depends heavily on the participation of women.
While many smaller breweries are having difficulty finding new master brewers, domestic alcohol consumption has decreased. The Japan Sake and Shochu Makers Association claims that the volume of production today is just around 25% of what it was fifty years ago.
Koten is one of several Japanese breweries looking to expand their domestic and international markets in order to stay competitive.
Isao Takahashi, the eldest brother of Takahashi and the person in charge of the family business’s commercial side, stated, “Our main product has always been dry sake, which local people continue to drink regularly.” We’re currently investigating producing sake with a better value as well.
He encourages his sister to try new things; each year, she develops a limited-edition line called Mie Special that aims to go beyond their famous dry product.
“My sister would say she wants to try making things with less alcohol or trying new yeasts; she’s bringing in all kinds of new techniques,” he said. I want to try my hardest to sell the sake, and I want my sister to manufacture whatever she wants.
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