Welcome to the first post in my new project, reviewing Japanese news about sake!
Survey site Sirabee (a loosely romanised version of the word for “research” or “find out”) asked 1,151 Japanese men and women aged 20-60 which prefecture they thought produced the best local sake, or jizake. The results in reverse order were:
- 8: Ishikawa
- 7: Kyoto
- 6: Yamagata
- 5: Saitama
- 4: Aomori
- 3: Hyogo
- 2: Akita
- 1: Niigata
Niigata won by a huge margin with over 30% of the votes. Sirabee put Saitama’s suprisingly strong showing down to its association with a sake featured in a 1994 TV drama (Natsuko’s Sake), and commented that they had expected Kyoto to place higher – although it’s home to many big companies it may not have as good a reputation for local brewing.
Not a huge sample size, but interesting nonetheless.
(Original article, published 10 September 2017)