Sake & brews ── Shochu & Awamori
Hanazake
Hanazake — Yonaguni's high-proof spirit
A distilled spirit made only on Yonaguni, Japan's westernmost island, at around 60 percent alcohol. Its raw materials and method are the same as awamori, but because its proof exceeds awamori's legal ceiling, it's classified as 'spirits' rather than awamori under the liquor tax law.
- Origin: Okinawa Yonaguni
- Brown sugar and awamori
- About 2030 km southwest of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
The raw materials are Thai rice and black koji, and the method itself is said to be no different from awamori. The difference lies in bottling only the first distillate — the highest-proof portion that comes off the still first — straight, without cutting it, giving a spirit around 60 percent alcohol with the raw, clear aroma of something fresh off the still, a bold character quite apart from ordinary awamori.
How it's made
Steamed Thai rice is cultured with black koji mold to build a mash under the zen-koji-jikomi method, then run through a single-distillation still, just as with ordinary awamori, it's said. While ordinary awamori is cut with water down to 43 percent or below after distillation, hanazake is bottled from the first distillate without any cutting, which is why it ends up falling under the separate category of 'spirits' rather than awamori under the liquor tax law. Production is said to be very limited, with only a small amount reaching the market beyond the island, making it hard to find.
Why it took this shape
Yonaguni, which once had lively ties to Taiwan, is said to have received its own distillation technology influenced by Taiwanese drinking culture. High-proof alcohol is said to have also served special purposes such as rituals and disinfection, and it's said to be still traditionally and carefully passed down today as a spirit unique to Yonaguni, tightly bound up with the island's daily life and culture.
Before you go
- 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.
- All-you-can-eat and all-you-can-drink customsTime limits, last-order windows, and a few rules to know before booking a tabehodai or nomihodai course.
- Rules and etiquette around alcoholWhat's worth knowing before drinking in Japan: the legal drinking age, how strictly drink-driving is treated, rules on drinking outdoors, train etiquette, and customs like waiting for a toast and pouring for each other.
Dishes in the same style
- Amami Kokuto-jochuKokuto-jochu permitted to be made only in the Amami Islands of Kagoshima Prefecture. It's said to carry a sweet aroma distinctive to islands where sugarcane cultivation thrives, and around 30 breweries are said to compete on character while observing the liquor tax law's condition that rice koji be used.
- AwamoriA distilled spirit from Okinawa made only from Thai rice and black koji, with every grain of rice turned into koji in a method called zen-koji-jikomi. Citric acid from the black koji is said to keep the mash from spoiling even in hot, humid conditions, and it's classified alongside shochu as a single-distillation spirit.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Also from Okinawa
- Ashi TibichiPig's trotters are simmered for hours with kelp and daikon until the bone slides free on its own. Rooted in the belief that eating a body part heals the same part in the eater, it's traditionally favored by older people, anyone with trouble in the legs, or those minding their skin.
- Chii IrichiiPork blood is worked with pork meat, carrot, and wood-ear mushroom into a distinctive stir-simmered dish. Rooted in the same eat-what-ails-you logic as ashi tibichi, it was thought to guard against anemia, and it's traditionally offered before Lunar New Year and at memorial services.
- Chimu ShinjiPork liver and a native yellow carrot are simmered down almost like a medicinal decoction, meant for days the body needs support. It follows the kusuimun idea that food itself can be medicine, and is traditionally made for anemia or when someone's caught a cold.
- Gooyaa ChanpuruuBitter goya is stir-fried together with Okinawa's firm tofu and egg. A dish only earns the name champuru once tofu is in it, and this one has long served double duty — coaxing back a summer-flagged appetite while delivering vitamin C, now eaten year-round.
- Hiijaa JiruGoat meat and offal are simmered slow in a large pot, finished with pungent mugwort, bitter greens, and salt alone. Its distinctive flavor is said to divide opinion, yet it remains a dish served at celebrations that draw a crowd, like a house's ridge-raising or a new-build's completion.