The Master Sake Brewers of Noto

The Skills of the Brewers

Located on an alluvial fan of the Tedori River, with headwaters on Mount Haku, the Bōmaru district in the city of Hakusan, Ishikawa Prefecture, is home to the Shata Brewery, known for its Tengumai brand of sake.

Tengumai, the Shata Brewery’s marquee brand.

Fresh water from the Tedori is one ingredient Shata uses in its yamahai-jikomi sake brewing technique. This old method involves growing natural lactic acid bacillus to create the shubo yeast starter for sake at low temperatures. While this process takes more brewing time than fast-fermentation sake starter techniques, in which lactic acid is added, the result is a rich, full-bodied, hearty sake.

Fresh river water, the source of delicious sake.

Among the tōji, the masters of sake brewing, the Noto tōji (who carry an old name for the Ishikawa region, still used for the Noto Peninsula to the north) possess skills that mark them as one of the four great groups of brew masters in Japan. Naka Saburō, one of the four supreme masters of the Noto tōji, has devoted himself to yamahai-jikomi for more than 30 years. Making good sake “requires constant close observation of the fundamentals of microbiology,” Naka says. Now he is a brew master emeritus, dedicating himself to training his successors.

Naka Saburō intently checks the kōji mold.

A corporate culture is taking root in Ishikawa as the times change, with sake brewing no longer reliant solely on the Noto tōji. Nonetheless, their traditions are undoubtedly carried on.

Rich, full-bodied yamahai-jikomi sake.

(Originally written in Japanese. Created in cooperation with Kanazawa Cable Television. Banner photo: The Shata Brewery in Hakusan, Ishikawa. All photos © Kanazawa Cable Television.)