Sake & brews ── Nihonshu (sake)
Hiroshima no Sake
Hiroshima sake — the soft-water brewing method behind ginjo
Hiroshima sake, built on a soft-water brewing method said to have overcome the weakness of mineral-poor water, which once made sake prone to spoiling, by building up robust koji and fermenting slowly at low temperature — a technique said to have gone on to influence the birth of ginjo sake.
- Origin: Hiroshima Higashihiroshima
- About 660 km west of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
Hiroshima's water is said to be soft, low in the minerals yeast needs to thrive. Compared to the medium-hard miyamizu of Nada, fermentation was harder to drive forward, and breweries here are said to have once suffered repeated losses from spoiled batches — until a method of building up robust koji deep into the rice grain made fermentation reliable even with soft water.
How it's made
Completed around 1898, the method has two defining features: growing the koji thoroughly enough that its enzymes reach deep into the rice, and fermenting the mash slowly at low temperature. A brewer named Miura Senzaburo is said to have worked out the method and published it widely as a written, improved brewing technique.
Why it took this shape
A brewery working with soft water, suffering repeated unexplained losses to spoilage, is said to have eventually traced the cause to a lack of minerals in the local water. The resulting technique — slow, patient fermentation at low temperature — was refined as a way to draw out fragrance, and is said to have gone on to shape the later emergence of the ginjo category itself.
Before you go
- Enjoying a bussanten (regional products fair)A guide to what's sold at a bussanten (regional products fair), how to find one, when it gets crowded, shelf life and taking food home, and how to fit one around a trip.
- How to use an antenna shopA guide to what's sold at an antenna shop, its restaurant or eat-in counters, its tourist-information role, the cluster of shops around Ginza and Yurakucho, and how to use one before a trip or for last-minute souvenirs.
- Sake brewery tours in Nada GogoNada Gogo, spreading from Kobe to Nishinomiya in Hyogo Prefecture, is said to be one of Japan's leading sake-producing areas. Many breweries here have visitor facilities open for touring.
Dishes in the same style
- Akita no SakeAkita sake, brewed with soft water in deliberate contrast to Nada's hard water, aiming for a mellow, delicate character. Breweries buried in snow are said to gain a natural insulating effect from it, a tradition of slow, low-temperature fermentation built around that climate.
- Daiginjo-shuSake made from rice milled to 50% or less with brewing alcohol added — among the officially defined categories, the deepest level of milling, aimed at a pronounced aroma and light body, born of elaborate brewing techniques honed for tasting competitions.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Also from Hiroshima
- Anago MeshiConger eel, grilled kabayaki-style, is sliced and layered over rice cooked in dashi—a dish from Miyajima. It uses "Seto anago," prized for the fat that fast currents help build into the fish, and is said to have begun in 1901 as a bento sold at Miyajimaguchi station.
- AzumaSardine-like mamakari, cured in vinegar, is pressed onto seasoned okara instead of vinegared rice in this coastal sushi. It is said to have begun as a way to stretch scarce rice by substituting the cheap, plentiful soy pulp, and was served at festivals and New Year's gatherings.
- Bishu NabeChicken, gizzard, and pork are simmered with nothing more than salt, pepper, and sake in this hot pot from Saijo, one of Japan's noted brewing towns. It is said to have begun as a simple meal cooked by sake brewers between batches, seasoned lightly so as not to dull their palate for tasting.
- EbamakiRice is tossed with Hiroshima-na pickle, bonito flakes, and sesame, then rolled in toasted nori—a roll from Hiroshima's Eba district, long known for seaweed cultivation. The ends are sometimes tucked shut so it can be eaten one-handed while rowing, a food born for nori fishermen working on the water.
- Fuchu-yakiA Fuchu, Hiroshima take on okonomiyaki that swaps sliced pork belly for ground beef or pork worked right into the batter, so the meat's flavor is said to come through evenly in every bite.
- GansuFish paste coated in panko and fried, a Kure, Hiroshima specialty. Said to have been devised in the postwar 1940s as a way to use leftover fish paste from kamaboko production, an unusual pairing of fried fish cake and cutlet-style crumb.