Sake News from Japan / Sake Muse

The Mainichi newspaper reports on a sake bar called Sugar Sake & Coffee in Asagaya, Tokyo that is serving sake - cold and hot - with food from a whole range of different cultures. It stands out not only for the mix of foreign foods on its menu but also for the...

The Asahi newspaper online edition covers a big step overseas for Fukushima Prefecture - opening a "satellite shop" in New York.The prefecture hopes having a presence in the US will take advantage of the rising interest in sake there and boost its exports during this...

Niconico News covers a bubbly sake product, but maybe not the one you were expecting. It's sake soap. The Mutenka Sekken (無添加石鹸, literally "soap with no additives") brand from the 63 year old Marubishi Sekken company uses traditional Japanese ingredients such as rice...

The Sankei West site reports on a new initiative by the town of Higashi-Hiroshima to open a "sake university".Perhaps spurred into action by Niigata University's new sake studies course and Sakeology centre (see Niigata University founds Sakeology Centre and Sake...

In the last of three posts based on a Nikkei Style article about the history of sake, we quickly pass through the Japanese "warring states" or Sengoku period (1467 - 1603 AD), where Oda Nobunaga's party trick was to serve doburoku (unpressed home-brew style sake) to...

Continuing with the Nikkei Style article on the history of sake, wet-field cultivation of rice reached Japan between the Jomon (14,000 - 300 BC) and Yayoi (300 BC - 300 AD) periods. Fermentation could have been first discovered in the Kyushu and Kinki areas when...

Nikkei Style has another interesting article about sake, this time based on its history and inclusion in the book 30の発明から読む日本史 (Japanese history seen through 30 inventions).It traces the history of sake back to the Yayoi period (which is very useful as I'm about to...

The Sankei Biz site features an article by the Hakutsuru brewery PR team, which introduces some new products but also has some interesting information.It first touches on the fall in consumption of sake and the reasons why: an ageing society with fewer children,...

The Mainichi newspaper site reports on a tactic to raise the profile and increase consumption of sake made in Hokkaido - showing the faces and telling the stories of the people who made it.The "sake with a face" project comes from a group of sake retailers, producers...