One of Japan’s oldest breweries carries on the craft as UNESCO registers Japanese sake brewing as Intangible Cultural Heritage this month.

The production of Japanese fermented rice alcohol, popularly known as sake in English and more specifically nihonshu in Japanese, has a storied history dating back more than 2,500 years. On December 5 at a UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee in Paraguay, the decision was made to officially register “the traditional knowledge and skills of sake-making with koji mold in Japan” as UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage. Many people have said that the move was long overdue since sake has played an integral role in Japanese cultural ceremonies and more for millennia.

Therefore, it was a perfect time for one of Japan’s oldest sake breweries, Kenbishi Shuzo, to also affirm its commitment to the manufacturing of traditional wooden sake barrels as part of its legacy to honor the UNESCO registration.

▼ A master craftsman making a wooden sake barrel by hand

Kenbishi Shuzo is one of Japan’s oldest sake breweries, originally founded in 1505. It’s located in Hyogo Prefecture’s Nada-Gogo, the largest sake-producing area of Japan. Traditional wooden sake barrels wrapped in decorative straw mats, called komodaru, are the third sake brewing-related product that the company is now producing in house following other wooden sake utensils and the straw ropes that are wrapped around the barrels for transportation.

▼ Kenbishi Shuzo’s emblem

With such a long history dating back to the Eisho period (1504-1521), Kenbishi Shuzo has delighted consumers of sake for hundreds of years and even found its way into contemporary art. Take the following Edo-period ukiyo-e woodblock print in Hiroshige Utagawa’s famous Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido series, for instance, in which a sake barrel with Kenbishi Shuzo’s distinctive emblem is shown being carried by two men in the lower right.

▼ “No. 1 Nihonbashi” (1847-1852) by Hiroshige Utagawa

Kenbishi Shuzo traditionally made its sake barrels using straw and other natural materials to show its deep appreciation to the natural world and for use in ceremonial offerings. However, in 2016, the company’s supplier of straw rope ceased production when its manufacturing machine broke down. Vinyl barrels were then used instead, but something just never felt quite right about that.

When all kinds of sake brewing-related businesses were closing in the aftermath of the pandemic, Kenbishi Shuzo decided to take matters into its own hands–literally. In 2023, the company hired three barrel-making craftsmen from Hyogo Prefecture to start their own production of sake barrels and be able to pass the techniques down to successive generations. This year, these three joined four craftsmen already working for the company’s in-house Wooden Tub Project, begun back in 2009. The end of the year is incredibly busy for sake producers as New Year’s draws near, and thankfully, business is booming as Kenbishi Shuzo is now supplying traditionally made wooden barrels not only for use with its own sake, but also for other sake breweries across Japan.

In light of sake brewing being registered as UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage and Kenbishi Shuzo reaffirming its commitment to passing down the traditional craft of barrel-making for generations to come, now is a perfect time to show your own appreciation for the alcoholic beverage. In fact, if you’ll be visiting Osaka over the winter months, you can even get a chance to taste Kenbishi Shuzo’s own Kuromatsu Kenbishi hot sake while riding the Osaka Wheel as part of the city’s special Kotatsu in the Sky campaign. Cheers to thousands of years of sake love!

Source, images: PR Times
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