Sake & brews ── Shochu & Awamori
Tanegashima Imo-jochu
Tanegashima imo-jochu
Imo-jochu from Tanegashima, the island known as where firearms first reached Japan. One account says the island's lord received sweet potato from the Ryukyu Kingdom in 1698, and Tanegashima is spoken of as one of the places where sweet potato is said to have first arrived in the region.
- Origin: Kagoshima Nishinoomote (Tanegashima)
- Sweet potato
- About 980 km southwest of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
The raw material is sweet potato, sharing the same basic raw material and method as imo-jochu from the Kagoshima mainland, it's said. A warm maritime climate and well-drained soil are said to create an environment well suited to growing sweet potato, and the varieties each island brewery cultivates, along with its choice of koji, are said to give each its own distinct character. Land unsuited to rice-growing is also said to be a background shared with the mainland's imo-jochu.
How it's made
Building a first mash from rice or barley koji, then adding steamed, mashed sweet potato for a second-stage fermentation, is said to follow the same basic form as imo-jochu from the Kagoshima mainland. It's distilled once through a single-distillation still, and each brewery is said to work its own small differences in blend ratio and approach to aging while preserving a method long handed down on the island. The length and method of aging are also said to strongly bring out each brewery's own distinct character.
Why it took this shape
Tanegashima is said to be one of the places where sweet potato first arrived, according to an account that the island's lord received it from the Ryukyu Kingdom in 1698, and it's also widely known as the island where firearms first reached Japan. Even on Tanegashima, where the well-drained land made rice-growing difficult, this crop is said to have thrived, and a culture of turning a familiar raw material into a distilled spirit is said to have taken root there just as it did elsewhere.
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Dishes in the same style
- Imo-jochuShochu distilled from sweet potato and rice (or barley) koji in a single-distillation still. It's said to carry a sweet, steamed-potato aroma and a thick sweetness, with the Koganesengan variety widely used as the main raw material.
- Izu Shoto Shochu (Shima-zake)Imo-jochu made in Tokyo's Izu Islands, also known as shima-zake. It's said to have been introduced in 1853 by a man exiled there from Satsuma, who brought a still and sweet potato seedlings, and using barley koji — a response to the islands' scarcity of rice — is said to be its hallmark.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Also from Kagoshima
- Abura ZomenPork and somen are fried together with a splash of broth, the oil and stock emulsifying into a silky coat on the noodles. Just how somen took root in wheat-free Amami isn't clear, but the dish is a fixture whenever people gather, not least for the August Dance festival.
- AkumakiMochi rice steeped in wood-ash lye is wrapped in bamboo sheath and boiled for hours in more lye water — a Boys' Festival sweet said to have fed Saigo Takamori's troops in the field. The lye's alkalinity holds bacteria back, letting it keep for days in Kagoshima's heat and humidity.
- 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.
- Buta Hone YasaiBone-in pork cut into big chunks is simmered in a large pot with tsuwabuki, daikon, and koshaman taro — an Amami dish essential to New Year's Eve, also called wanfineyasse. It's regarded as a wisdom born of using every part of the island's own black pigs.
- Buta JiruPork simmered with daikon, taro, and other roots in a miso broth, built on Kagoshima's own pork — the prefecture raises more hogs than any other — paired with a barley miso high in koji and correspondingly sweet. A warming bowl for winter, common at home and in school lunches alike.
- Buta MisoBoiled pork is pounded together with miso and sugar into a keeping paste, with peanuts and bonito flakes added in Amami versions. It's said to have grown out of the need to use every part of the one pig a household slaughtered each year, alongside salting and other preserved forms.