Rice, grapes, barley, sweet potato, brown sugar, oak, water.
Tracing Japan's drinks culture through its places and its makers.
土地と水と時間が、酒になる。
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WATER
ORIGIN
TOWADA, AOMORI TOHOKU · JAPAN
ScrollWATER
04 — OPENING
一杯の向こうに、土地がある。
EVERY GLASSHASA PLACE.
Water rises, rice ripens, grapes swell, barley sways. Makers take it in — ferment it, distill it, and wait. This archive is a map for travelling the Japanese archipelago through its drinks.
Sake (seishu) is a brewed drink made chiefly from rice, rice koji and water, fermented and then pressed. Koji turns the rice's starch into sugar while yeast turns that sugar into alcohol — both at once, in the same tank. This multiple parallel fermentation lies at the heart of sake brewing.
Which rice, polished how far; which water; which yeast. Each brewery's choices, and the skill of the toji and brewing team, give every sake its character.
BREWERIES
RICE
WATER
KOJI
YEAST
FERMENTATION
TOJI
REGION
VESSELS
HISTORY
Photo: Daderot / Public domain
米と麹と水から醸す。
SPECIAL DESIGNATIONS
The eight categories of the NTA's sake labeling standard. All require koji rice of at least 15%. Polishing ratio is the weight of polished rice relative to brown rice.
Under Japan's labeling standard, only wine made in Japan exclusively from Japanese-grown grapes may be called "Nihon Wine" (Japan Wine). It is distinguished from wine merely produced in Japan from imported must or concentrate.
Yamanashi, Nagano, Hokkaido and Yamagata lead, but vineyards now reach across the country — including varieties with long Japanese histories, such as Koshu and Muscat Bailey A.
A 1994 revision of the Liquor Tax Act lowered the minimum annual volume required for a beer licence, and small breweries appeared across Japan. Known then as ji-beer (local beer), the movement now spans a wide range of craft styles.
Malt, hops, yeast and water — and, for some brewers, local fruit, rice or citrus. Japanese craft beer lives where style conventions meet regional character.
1994
THE BIRTH OF JI-BEER
In April 1994 an amendment to the Liquor Tax Act cut the minimum annual production for a beer licence from 2,000 kL to 60 kL.
Whisky-making in Japan began in earnest with distilleries built in the 1920s. Mashing and fermentation, distillation in copper stills and long maturation in wooden casks turn grain into whisky.
The Japan Spirits & Liqueurs Makers Association has set a voluntary standard for labeling "Japanese Whisky". This archive does not classify a product as Japanese Whisky merely because it was bottled in Japan; each product records its labeling standard and source.
Photo: さかおり / CC BY-SA 4.0
LABELING STANDARD
What it takes to be called Japanese Whisky.
The JSLA's voluntary standard (in force 1 April 2021; transition to 31 March 2024). This archive records labelingStandard, originClaim, source and verification date per product, and classifies nothing without evidence.
Honkaku shochu (single-distilled shochu) is made by fermenting its ingredients with koji and distilling the mash once in a pot still. Much of the ingredient's aroma and flavour carries through — its defining trait.
Sweet potato in Kagoshima and Miyazaki, barley in Oita and Iki, rice in Kumamoto's Kuma basin, brown sugar in Amami. Centred on Kyushu, the bond of ingredient, koji and place draws the map of shochu.
Awamori is Okinawa's distilled spirit: rice is made entirely into koji with black koji mould, fermented as an all-koji mash, then distilled in a pot still.
Long-aged awamori is called kusu, and it has been handed down with shitsugi — the practice of topping up older jars from younger ones. Labeling kusu follows an industry standard.
CLIMATE
BLACK KOJI
RICE
DISTILLATION
MATURATION
KAME
KUSU
HISTORY
Photo: Object In Space / CC BY-SA 4.0
KUSU
古酒（クース）
Since 1 August 2015, only awamori whose entire contents have been stored for three years or more may be labeled kusu. An age statement must reflect the youngest awamori in the blend.
We do not apply wine's idea of terroir mechanically to every drink. For sake, shochu and awamori, the relationship between drink and place is recorded as a layering of land, water, ingredient, climate and culture.
Photo: Daderot / Public domain
WATERSHAPESTHE DRINK.
01 — LAND
Land
Climate, terrain, soil — where the ingredients grow.
02 — WATER
Water
For mashing, washing, dilution — the first ingredient of all.
03 — INGREDIENT
Ingredient
Rice, grapes, barley, sweet potato, brown sugar — what each place has chosen.
04 — CULTURE
Culture
Food, festivals, daily life — where the drink has lived.
Sake · Japanese Wine · Craft Beer · Japanese Whisky · Shochu · Awamori
Photo: Forrest O. / CC BY-SA 2.0
01
Making sugar
Grapes already hold sugar. The starch in rice, barley or sweet potato must first be broken into sugar by enzymes — from koji, or from malt.
02
Multiple parallel fermentation
In sake, saccharification by koji and fermentation by yeast run side by side in the same tank. Beer ferments wort after mashing is complete; wine ferments the grape's own sugar directly.
03
As a brewed drink
Pressed or filtered after fermentation, the result is a brewed drink — sake, wine, beer.
Heat, copper and steam draw spirit and aroma from the mash.
Japanese Whisky · Shochu · Awamori
Photo: Mackmyra Svensk Whisky AB / CC BY-SA 2.0
01
Pot (batch) distillation
The mash is heated in a still and the vapour condensed, one batch at a time — a method that tends to retain the ingredient's aromas. Honkaku shochu and awamori are distilled in pot stills.
02
Continuous distillation
Distillation repeats continuously inside a column, efficiently producing high-purity spirit. It is used for grain whisky, among others.
03
As a distilled spirit
Once distilled, the result is a spirit — whisky, shochu, awamori. The process differs fundamentally from that of brewed drinks.
Toji, winemakers, brewers, distillers, blenders. We never infer a person's career or words — only what an official or cited source records.
TOJI
杜氏
The master brewer. The toji leads the kurabito and oversees every step from raw materials to pressing, storage and maturation. Guilds carry regional names — Nanbu, Echigo, Tanba and others.
Sake bottlesSAKE
Koshu wine (Chanmoris)WINEKatsunuma, Koshu, Yamanashi
Asuka Shijin Beer Seiryu IPABEER
Tasting flight at HakushuWHISKYHakushu, Hokuto, Yamanashi
Amami kokuto shochuSHOCHU
Awamori isshobin bottlesAWAMORI
Sake cups (choko)SAKE
Furano wineWINEFurano, Hokkaido
Coedo BeniakaBEERLyon, France
Suntory HibikiWHISKY
Shochu on the rocksSHOCHU
Awamori tasting flightAWAMORI東京都
Dassai junmai daiginjoDASSAI (DASSAI Inc.)SAKE
Chuo Budoshu wine displayChuo Budoshu (Grace Wine)WINEKatsunuma, Koshu, Yamanashi
Coedo beerBEERLyon, France
Whisky highballWHISKY
Hyakunen no Kodoku barley shochuSHOCHU
Karakara spirit pourer, 18th century (Musée Cernuschi)AWAMORIパリ・チェルヌスキ美術館
Dewazakura Sake BreweryDewazakura Sake BrewerySAKE天童市（山形県）
Chateau Mercian Katsunuma WineryChâteau MercianWINEKatsunuma, Koshu, Yamanashi
AQULA BreweryBEERAkita City, Akita
Venture Whisky Chichibu DistilleryVenture Whisky Chichibu DistilleryWHISKYChichibu, Saitama
Iwagawa JozoSHOCHUSoo, Kagoshima
Kumejima no Kumesen distilleryKumejima's KumesenAWAMORI久米島町（沖縄県）
Matsumoto Sake Brewing, FushimiSAKE京都市伏見区
Chateau Mercian Wine MuseumChâteau MercianWINEKatsunuma, Koshu, Yamanashi
Baeren BreweryBEERMorioka, Iwate
Hombo Shuzo Mars Shinshu DistilleryMars Komagatake Distillery (Hombo Shuzo)WHISKYMiyada, Nagano
Shochu menu tags in an izakayaSHOCHU
Sakimoto Awamori DistilleryAWAMORI沖縄県（琉球村近く）
Gekkeikan brewery street in FushimiGekkeikanSAKE京都市伏見区
Chuo Budoshu (Grace Wine)Chuo Budoshu (Grace Wine)WINEKatsunuma, Koshu, Yamanashi
Hakodate BeerBEERHakodate, Hokkaido
Nikka Miyagikyo DistilleryWHISKYAoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi
Japan's brewed drink — made from rice, rice koji and water.Sake →
Wine made in Japan from grapes grown in Japan.Japanese Wine →
Local beer from the town brewery.Craft Beer →
Pot stills, casks, and time in the hills.Japanese Whisky →
Sweet potato, barley, rice, brown sugar — a spirit that carries its ingredient.Shochu →
Black koji, clay jars, and Ryukyuan time.Awamori →
Gekkeikan komodaru barrelGekkeikanSAKE
Hokkaido vineyardWINEFurano, Hokkaido
Y.Market Brewing brewhouseBEERNagoya, Aichi
Awamori cellar in Nisshū-dō caveAWAMORI金武町（沖縄県）
Wooden vats at Gekkeikan Okura Sake MuseumGekkeikanSAKE京都市伏見区
Meiji-era winemaking equipmentChâteau MercianWINEKatsunuma, Koshu, Yamanashi
Pot still at Suntory Hakushu DistilleryWHISKYHakushu, Hokuto, Yamanashi
Shochu still at Tango KuraSHOCHUKyotango, Kyoto
Hakkaisan komodaru barrelsHakkai BrewerySAKE名古屋市中村区
Furano Wine HouseWINEFurano, Hokkaido
Rack warehouse at HakushuWHISKYHakushu, Hokuto, Yamanashi
Pre-war awamori productionAWAMORI沖縄県
Exhibit at Hakutsuru Sake Brewery MuseumHakutsuru Sake BrewingSAKE神戸市東灘区