Sake & brews ── Nihonshu (sake)
Iwate no Sake
Iwate sake — home of the Nanbu toji brewing guild
Sake from Iwate Prefecture, home of the Nanbu toji brewing guild, said to have originated in Shiwa and developed its base in Ishidoriya, Hanamaki. The area's natural setting, good rice, and good water are said to have supported a long-standing brewing tradition.
- Origin: Iwate Hanamaki (Ishidoriya)
- About 430 km north of Tokyo
What it's made of
Iwate Prefecture is said to be the birthplace of the Nanbu toji, today the largest brewing guild in Japan. Originating in Shiwa and building its base in Ishidoriya, Hanamaki, the area is said to be blessed with beautiful natural surroundings, good rice, and good water, supporting active brewing since old times.
How it's made
The Nanbu toji trace their roots to the Kitakami River basin, and are said to have honed and spread their craft each winter by leading groups of village youths to brew sake in other regions during the farming off-season. An organized guild structure took shape as well, and the group is said to have brought its exceptional brewing skill to breweries across the country.
Why it took this shape
With heavy winter snow and too little arable land to make a living from summer farming alone, a custom of traveling to brewing regions for winter income is said to have taken root. Alongside the Echigo and Tanba toji, the Nanbu toji stand as one of Japan's leading brewing guilds, their formation shaped by craftsmen moving toward wherever good water could be found.
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 Iwate
- Azuki BattoRested wheat dough cut into wide noodle strips is served in a sugar-sweetened red-bean broth — made along the Sanriku coast for building-raising and harvest celebrations, with a custom of eating it seven times on the seventh day of Obon for good health.
- Hecchoko DangoDumplings of millet and sorghum flour, each dimpled in the center, are simmered in a sweet red-bean soup — also called "ukiuki dango," a harvest-close treat from rice-poor northern Iwate where they float to the surface as they cook.
- Hina ManjuRice-flour dough tinted with food coloring is wrapped around red-bean paste and shaped into flowers, peaches or rabbits using wooden molds — tied to a doll-viewing custom in Hanamaki's Ohasama area, offered alongside kirisensho at the Girls' Festival.
- Hizu NamasuThin slices of cartilage from a salmon's head — "hizu" — are salted, cured in vinegar and tossed with daikon and carrot namasu — a rare delicacy from just one small part of the fish, a New Year dish where salmon run up Miyako Bay.
- Dento Mochi RyoriAn umbrella term for some 300 ways of dressing mochi — sweet red bean, edamame paste, walnut, natto, zoni and more. A domain-era custom of pounding mochi twice a month left Ichinoseki with a "mochi calendar" of 60-plus occasions a year and a formal ceremonial mochi course still observed today.
- Imo no Ko JiruAutumn taro is simmered with chicken, tofu, daikon and carrot in a soy broth — a fall favorite of the taro-growing Kitakami river valley, still enjoyed at riverside "imoni-kai" gatherings around Kitakami's Futako district.