Brewing sake with a small group
Miyoshi City Ikeda Town Salad…? Is there such a place name? It is the address of Miyoshikiku, the company we visited this time. The small family name “Sarada” is the katakana form of “Sarada”. Although there are many areas where katakana is used for small letters, the use of katakana for addresses is becoming less common, so it is interesting to see the names of places in this Ikeda-cho neighborhood on a map. But, digression aside, Miyoshikiku is a small sake brewery with a staff of about four.
The fifth generation brewer, Ryoichiro Umamiya, abolished the traditional toji system in 2001 and has been making sake by himself. Sake breweries have traditionally been considered closed to the public, but he is now striving to make sake and the brewery more accessible to the public by allowing them to see how he makes his own sake.
A Sake Brewery that Retains the Samurai Spirit
The Umamiya family’s ancestors were originally samurai from Ako. It is said that they entered Awa together with Koroku Hachisuka, Hideyoshi’s one hand man. Even today, the samurai residence and the samurai gate remain as a reminder of those days, and the samurai gate is a whopping 300 years old. The sake brewery was founded in 1903, and in the early days, there were many hardships because of the “samurai family business method.
In 2007, the brewery won the top prize in the “Junmai Sake Battle,” a competition in which sake lovers’ groups from all over Japan compare 100 brands of sake from different regions.
Sake brewed from local spring water
From the moment the lid is lifted, Miyoshikiku’s sake has a rich fruit aroma and a very rounded flavor that is never sweet. It is a sake that tastes like white wine. The secret lies in the nature of the brewing water. Miyoshikiku uses spring water from the Matsuo River, which flows from the rocks of the Iya Valley, a famously unexplored region. This spring water is known locally as “famous water. Hard water is generally considered suitable for sake brewing, but this water is super soft.
Miyoshikiku has successfully used this property to brew a sake with the umami of water and rice, which sets it apart from conventional sake that is neat and dry. It is surprisingly fruity and must be tasted at least once.
