From here, there and everywhere: sake of the 47 prefectures

by | Apr 19, 2018 | Sake News from Japan

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The Japanese TV Asahi channel site has a short segment from their news programme about a sake made from rice from all 47 Japanese prefectures (they’re not all prefectures, but let’s let that one go for now).

The project also aims to make onigiri rice balls from the all-prefecture blend.

The Yoi Shigoto Okoshi Fair (よい仕事おこしフェア, Let’s Bring Back Great Work Fair), organised by Japan’s 194 credit unions to give companies and other groups a platform to promote their businesses, will be held in Tokyo in September. One project announced as part of the buildup to the fair is to take rice harvested in each one of Japan’s 47 local government areas, blend it, and turn it into sake.

The project symbolises regional cooperation, and at the announcement ceremony a tōji from each area presented a miniature straw-wrapped bundle of rice to be put on a shelf placed at their location on a giant map of Japan. The sake produced will be sold at the trade fair, and proceeds will go towards recovery projects such as rebuilding after the Great East Japan Earthquake. Masayoshi Yoshino, the minister responsible for disaster reconstruction in Tohoku, also attended the event.

Following on from my realisation that ginjō and daiginjō don’t have to be made from sake-specific rice (酒米, sakamai, or 酒造好適米 shuzō kōteki mai), this reminded me that sake can also be made from a blend of rice. Miyuki Karahashi of Aizu Homare told me when I visited in November 2017 that they keep their sake competitively priced by buying up batches of good quality sakamai and blending them – their ultimate aim was a daiginjō for JPY 1,000 that would make it onto far more dining tables in Japan. So, there’s magic in the mix?

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