Archive for March, 2009
The Brewers
Uei-san
Under his white cap, Ryosuke Uei’s floppy black hair falls thickly over his ears. He has the tiny wrinkles around his eyes of a young man who laughs a lot. As kashira, the brew master’s right-hand man, he oversees the daily activities around the brewery and performs tests to check the progress of the moromi. This job carries a great deal of responsibility – particularly for a 26 year old – but Uei-san has proven himself to be more than capable.
“Do you ever feel…lonely, being the youngest on staff?” I asked one day. He’d told me earlier that the other brewers were 61, 65, and 75 – quite a big difference.
“Never,” he said. “We have a good time together. Everyone is so fun, Makine-san especially. He’s a cool older guy. And the boss, too.”
Daimon-san had confessed to me that, initially, he’d been hesitant to hire someone in his twenties for such an important position.
“But I felt very strongly something special about him,” he said, “so I said, ‘Okay, let’s try it.’”
It certainly seems that he made the right decision.
Makine-san
Before the last day, Makine-san half-jokingly challenged me to a drink-off.
I found this very cute, and considered taking him up on it. Upon second thought, however, I declined. Based on what he’d told Greg and me during the week, I knew that the man could put it away.
Makine-san is one of those people (like my good friend Tamami, another serious drinker) that I refer to as sasori, or scorpion – small but deadly.
Arai-san
Arai-san has been practicing his English all week. He’s actually rather good, considering that the last time he studied it was in high school. It turns out that he can speak a little Chinese as well.
He tried hard to explain even the most difficult things in English, until at last something caught him completely off guard. While washing the rice one day, we noticed Oskari chomping a mouthful of uncooked rice.
Arai-san’s eyes flew open as rushed over.
“You don’t…” he started, shaking his head and waving his hands repeatedly, “eat rice.”
Then, he turned to me and spoke in Japanese.
“Osakari, he says that if you eat the rice raw like that, you’ll get really bad diarrhea.”
Funny hand motions were made, and the point was taken.
Daimon-san
Daimon-san, who is in charge of the polishing machine, is active and surprisingly strong for a septuagenarian.
“I went to pick takenoko this morning,” Daimon-san told me.
“Oh, really?” I asked, “Where does is grow?”
“On the hill nearby,” he answered, “they’re really coming up now.”
He grinned and made a teepee with his hands, pantomiming the pointy heads of bamboo shoots breaking through the ground.
“We’re going to use them at the Mukune-tei restaurant this April.” He grinned again; the gap from two missing bottom teeth made his smile even more endearing.
Later, he showed me a bag of flowers that he’d just picked.
“Peach blossoms,” he said.
Each little pink flower was perfectly intact, with drops of moisture clinging its delicate petals.
“Peach blossoms,” he repeated, cupping one in his extended right hand.
I smiled.
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Well, it’s time to get back to real life. No more lifting 10kg bags of rice or making koji. Of course, I’m happy to be back in noisy, crazy Tokyo, with Hubby and the cat, but I will miss these guys. Thank you all so much!
Last day
The week has come and gone so quickly, but much has been learned (and eaten and drank!). It was a fantastic week, as simple as that. I thought I would make one last post to share a few more photos, and also to leave behind a Vinod (session 2)-inspired and requested haiku.
The summer’s rice crop
Feeds winters fermentation
In spring, celebrate
Rikyubai, growing in the front garden, and the name of Daimon brewery's sake in Japan
Koji mold, aka Aspergillus oryzae
Fish eggs, green beans and radishes, one of the many delicious dishes of our last meal, prepared by the Chef of Mukune-tei restaurant here at the brewery
Some last advice for future interns or visitors to Daimon brewery: be sure to enter through the front gates, the garden is absolutely beautiful and peaceful, and lets you know you are somewhere special.
I also have a wordpress blog dedicated to sake. Thank you.
Sake and Media Riches
Posted by: PatriciaYarrow in Session 3 on March 29th, 2009
__cherry pontocho
An afternoon in Kyoto and the evening in Pontocho, where the cherry blossoms drape poetically over the waterways.
My new tiny laptop, an Asus Eee PC for fingers held close typing. Worked fine. Downloaded all my photos. Oscari took almost 1,000.
__daimon stirs moromi
Wireless in the kitchen and dinning room worked flawlessly. I still had to connect my little laptop to the wall because of low batteries.
__koji rice with daimon and greg
Daimon with Greg at the koji "cracking" cedar tabel. A very warm experience.
Of course, all the Tokyo people had keitais. Harris called his wife and publishers in New York a lot. Rich’s cell did not work even though folks in America promised him they would. He brought two. Neither worked.
__Kiyoshi Uea’s hat style
Kiyoshi Uea's hat style: the beekeeper.
Oscari and Daimon sport iPhones. I am soooo jealous.
__kiyomi tamaki, works in the bottling and shipping warehouse. Gave me all the labels.
Kiyomi Tamaki gave me every label in stock and has beautifully lush hair.
Between working in the shuzo, we had breaks. Everyone came back, sat down, and dived into their technology…and blogged baby blogged. Hope you all enjoyed the posts and photos. People would have long conversations but never look at each other…just their screens, typing away.
__sake label otaku
The Sake Label Otaku. Utsunomiya, on the left, has hers in spiral notebooks with tons of notes.
Thanks to the great support of Daimon, his wife, the office ladies, the restaurant Utsunomiya chef and former accountant, her crew of blue-clad ladies, and the fine shuzo crew.
__the sake crew.
My hands are gorgeous thanks to working with rice all week. Melinda was a great koji table partner, working the hot rice into little bits. Harris is a blast of New York City cheek. Rich was an unflappable New Englander. Oscari is a mad Finn and in love. I am returning to my academics and Ryogoku, the sumo center.And, thanks to Greg, we will always have Hanford.
Daimon's Bamboo Forest
Saturday Wrap-up and Advice
Posted by: PatriciaYarrow in Session 3 on March 29th, 2009
The work is done. We’re all wrapping it up here. I’ve given my meishi to the three kurobito: Arai, Daimon (the other one), Makine, and “Kashira” Uea. The women who run the Mukune Tei restaurant are setting up our farewell dinner in the next room. Even the sumo bashoo is in its final momentum, and finishes tomorrow. Sake and Sumo, a great combo to many afternoons. Righth now a variety of sake people have drifted into the kitchen to watch.…I suppose we are all ready to return to our respective S.O.s, pets, etc. but what I lot we’ve learned and experienced.
I’m shipping home three bottles of Daimon sake (perhaps I slapped the on one of them) and three little bags of the KASU, or sake lees (perhaps I peeled them off the canvas earlier this week).
Advice to the next crew:
1) Bring heavy felt liners to put in the cute and spiffy rubber boots. I brought mine and my feet were warm and comfortable with them.
2) 2) Bring a power strip for your laptop and various electronics. Your room will sport exactly one outlet with two plugs.
3) For shuzo work, I brought two pair of white gi pants, heavy canvas. Long-johns for warmth under them. One pair thick woolen socks and a thinner over pair. A crew neck vest made a lot of difference. VEST: A thin vest from Uniglo worked for Harris and Daimon-san.
4) One set of canvas black sports pants for evenings and a long white cotton shirt made the evening rounds of izakaya and dinners just fine. SO, not many sets of clothes needed. There’s an excellent washer and DRIER here.
5) Write your blogs/posts in MS Word separately, then add them to your WordPress notes. Then add photos. It’s easier. (Greg’s suggestion.)
Here’s the gang when we first started…(photo by Oscari, the mad Finn)
__
Izakayas and dinners always featured whatever Daimon san brought us, and I really enjoyed the blind tastings. I was alway way off the mark, but may have learned a bit more. Really enjoyed it, as you can see here. (photo by Oscari, the wild Finn).
—
Tomorrow morning we go our separate ways, to Tokyo, and Rich to Connecticut. Everyone has been more than kind, generous, and patient with us. I hope to return again later…I certainly don’t feel this is the end, but more the beginning of a long and fruitful, adventurous, and truly remarkable relationship. I cant begin to thank Daimon-san for his vision and Beau Timken for going for it. I wonder what innovations will come about and what happen in the future of sake.
Nigori on this hand, and on the other...?
Make it, taste it, love it
Posted by: oskari.hamalainen in Session 3 on March 28th, 2009
The work is done, at least for us interns. Today we added koji and rice to the patch for the third time, and left it to slowly ferment over the next 5 weeks. We pressed an earlier patch, tasted fresh sake from Yabuta (press) and finally packed deliciously bitter sake kasu (lees). Now it’s time to take off our rubber boots and white hats, and enjoy the farewell dinner here in brewery’s own sake restaurant, Mukune tei.
During these days we have followed Daimon-san’s excellent education method; to learn about sake, drink it, make it, love it. I actually feel that we have gained more that the sake lore that we came here for. For me the Mukune Way has been an amazing insight to the Japanese culture. The history, the locality, the Japanese quality mind that permeates every corner of brewery production, the kurabito who work with dedication, kata and kaizen (continuous improvement) mind…
I feel that for one week I was living the future of Japan. Here in Mukune history is alive with the promise of continuously improving future. I love how Daimon-san carries the valuable learnings from the history, while embracing change with open mind. He educates his countrymen about the joys of premium sake in his restaurant and he extends his message of the ‘betterment of sake’ also to us funny foreigners. A true father figure for all sake ambassadors!
Time to continue our education… let us start an evening of ‘drink sake, love sake’!
_How to Recognize Mukune’s Back Entrance_
Posted by: PatriciaYarrow in Session 3 on March 28th, 2009
NEW INTERNS: Mukune has two entrances. Here is how to get to the URAMON or TSUYOUMON, which is really for business visitors and cargo delivery. When you first arrive though, the SEIMON, or official entrance, is the most beautiful and aesthetic, especially for your first impression of the shuzo. If you arrive at the Kawachi-Iwafuni station please ask the taxi driver to take you there. Another posting is being made now that will show the way to the SEIMON…
It is a bit complicated, but the SEIMON post will make it easy to find.
To Find the Back Gate, or the URAMON:
When you are walking up the road that leads uphill straight uphill to Mukune, how can you recognize the entrance? There isn’t exactly an obvious English sign. Here is your first indicator…the purple flags on poles.
There is a sign on the wall by the flags where you will see “Mukune” in English. That is all for English.
There is a thin sign all in Japanese, informing visitors that the office is just ahead.
Go up the small road that branches off the main road and heads uphill to the rusting metal barred gate.
The office is on your left. The entrance to the shuzo is on your right, just pas the large, “can’t miss it” chimney. Welcome to Mukune. Mukune o yookoso…..Hope this helps all the new people to come.
Getting a Feel for Rice
I’ve come to understand what my fellow intern Harris Salat meant when he said that he’s enjoying the feeling of working with rice. The tactile range is tremendous, from the cool silkiness of just-washed sakamai to the prickly hardness of rice straight from the cooling machine.
After a couple of days of working with the koji rice, I’m starting to appreciate some of its nuances.
“It’s too moist,” I said.
“I think so, too,” Patricia agreed. A tinge of worry flitted across her brow as she examined a handful.
Uei-san confirmed our suspicions, “There’s still too much moisture. We’ll have to wait 20 minutes or so before tane-kiri.”
“Oh, no,” I thought, feeling responsible.
“It’s not you,” Daimon-san consoled me. “This is caused by the rice steaming. Each time is different, so we must adjust.”
“Yes,” I said, “I think I’m starting to get a feel for it.”
“That’s good,” he laughed. “Now you can be koji sensei!”
Sake Flats
Posted by: PatriciaYarrow in Session 3 on March 27th, 2009
Looking around the shuzo, at first it seems cold and a little sterile. Closer inspection shows eerie shapes, spooky shadows, and amusing juxtapositions that can only come from layers of use ande living in a space. The flats used by Daimon Ni-ban, a specialist in rice polishing and also the mover of flats…
.
Outdoors, rows of bottles sit awaiting their next round of use 
Eerie view of blue bottles in yellow cases. 
Inside the shuzo, the afternoon sun comes in and shines through this giant butterfly wing, actually one of the circular heavy nets we cast over the wide barrel of steamed rice.
and the arrangement of things is quite pleasing. Here, two wooden shovels used in the koji room.
and finally, before we run off to the local izakaya to end this long and wonderful Friday, an arrangement of electrical wires of some antiquity.
SHORT videos-bottle labeling
Posted by: PatriciaYarrow in Session 3 on March 27th, 2009
I love sake labels, so I was thrilled to join Makine-san out in the back shed to actually help apply them.__(1) Makine-Starts
A 30-year old machine clanks and bangs along as Makine-san pops the bottle into the beginning of the short convery belt. The roll of front labels unwinds to join it’s partner for the Label Dance. A Date Stamper__ (2) Date Stamper beats the time. The small bottles twirl down the line and into the round corral__(3) Moving Along
where Harris and I place them in their new homes, cartons, which will be off to the USA in a few days.
Front labels complete, Makine-san has to recalibrate the machine for the different size and placement. Quite a few back labels meet their fate in the trash can for failed test runs. In a few moments, though, he has it. The dance begins again.__(4) Moving Along, Singing a Song
1-Makine Starts the Bottle Conga. Watch from start to finish.
2-Date Stamping. Close up of the stamper with today’s date.
3-Label Line Dancing.
4-Longer Label Line Dancing
Hand-crafted, well-rested.
We are getting “hands-on” experience making saké (nihonshu 日本酒) here at the Daimon shuzo (酒造), and many of the steps are done in a way that would be recognizable by brewers of centuries ago. However, the far reaching arms of the industrial revolution have not left sake production untouched. It is now possible to automate the process to such an extent that one’s hands need never touch a grain of rice. Although this may be a bit of an exaggeration, in order to generate huge volumes of saké, larger breweries are moving towards automation.
This is not the case at Daimon-shuzo. While keeping a very traditional approach to brewing, Daimon-san has carefully considered which instruments and machines could be used to aid and improve the process while still producing a high quality, hand-crafted product. The machines he has chosen are ones that remove tedious tasks from the process, and can be done equally well by hand or by machine. For example, after preparing the yeast starter (the moto), Daimon-san and Harris-san carefully lowered a large machine into the centre of the tank (picture below) for the purpose of stirring and adding many small amounts of water to the moto over the next 24 hours. Now, as anyone who has let their young child help them prepare a meal can probably attest, adding ingredients one has weighed out or stirring the pot does not take a lot of skill and won’t change the final outcome. Deciding how much to add and when to add it does. These are the types of machines Daimon-san has told us he likes to use: ones that remove the tedious tasks, like stirring, adding water, unclumping koji rice and rotating koji boxes, and allow him to focus on the important decision-making tasks. The end result: a “hands-on” approach to making premium saké- and a toji that can sleep at night.
The moto waterer/stirrer (I am sure it has a better Japanese name!)
The koji declumper (again, better in Japanese- kirikaeshiki)
The koji box rotator (a little better)