The Tokyo Main Dish site reports on a sake brewery hit by the recent Oki earthquake in Yamagata.
The earthquake hit Yamagata and Niigata prefectures at 10:22 pm on 18 June 2019. The disaster damaged homes, bars/restaurants and shops, and also over 10,000 bottles of sake stored on site at breweries.
Kato Kachirō Shuzō was among the breweries that suffered damage, and weren’t even sure they would be able to pay their employees.
One person who knew about their predicament was master Italian chef Masayuki Okuda, who took to the internet to appeal for support. The brewery decided to sell their sake at a special low price in order to generate enough cash to pay their employees and rebuild.
Okuda published a photo of himself in a hard hat outside the damaged brewery, together with an explanation of the brewery’s aim of raising enough to pay their staff for two months and rebuild, with a request to his followers to share the post as widely as possible.
The brewery offered a set of six bottles worth JPY 12,000 for JPY 10,000, tax included, free shipping and no other fees:
- Daiginjō Funagake shizuku
- Tokubetsu junmai Tomizu
- A limited edition sake junmai ginjō or higher grade
- Summer junmai
- Sasanomai honjōzō (local sake)
- Dry junmai
Links
- Original article (Japanese, Tokyo Main Dish, 26 June 2019)
- Kato Kachirō Shuzō (Japanese)