Sake tasting in Nada in Kobe

A strong typhoon hit Kansai on Sunday. Weather forecast is accurate on this occasion. So I took Sake tasting walk in Nada, Kobe yesterday on Saturday. I have been to Kobe more than a dozen of times, but I had just visited the central part of Kobe, so this is my first time to visit this part of Kobe.

Kobe was directly hit by a terrible earthquake in January 1995. I felt the big jolt in Kyoto in the early morning of that winter day, and transportation was disrupted even in Kyoto. Most of the Nada Sake breweries suffered great damages and their old buildings were crushed. But the area I visited yesterday is mostly reconstructed and shows no image of those terrible events except the panels showing the area immediately after the earthquake.

There are so called three very good Sake brewing areas in Japan, which are Saijo in Hiroshima prefecture, Nada in Hyogo prefecture, and Fushimi in Kyoto city. Nada Sake breweries stretch from Kobe city to Nishinomiya city, both of which are in Hyogo prefecture, running in parallel of inland sea coast. And Nada Sake breweries are further divided into five areas, which consists from west to east of Nishi-go, Mikage-go, Uozaki-go, Nishinomiya-go, and Imazu-go. The first three are in Kobe city and I only covered these three on this occasion.

In Fushimi, I learned that good quality water is a deciding factor for quality Sake. But Nada seems to have much more factors. Nada has good water, good rice especially suited for Sake called "Yamada-Nishiki", Sake making masters from Tamba area called "Tamba-Toji", and cold winter wind from Mount Rokko located to the north. I was surprised by the fact that winter wind contributes to the quality of Sake. By the way, this "wind from Mount Rokko" is called "Rokko-oroshi" and this is the name of a song that professional baseball team Hanshin Tigers adopts. Hanshin means Osaka-Kobe, and this baseball team is loved by people of Kansai.

First stop is Sawanotsuru Sake Museum in Nishi-go. This place is designated as "important tangible folk-cultural property"(重要有形民族文化財).  This is a two-storied building, and shows the sake making process from the beginning to the end. Also on display is model of cargo vessel from Edo era, which lasted from 17th to 19th century. Nada's sake seems to become very popular at Edo, modern day Tokyo, where Tokugawa shogunate sat. Nada took advantage of its good port to transport quantities of sake to Edo, enhancing its reputation further.

Sawanotsuru Sake Museum in Nishi-go

Mockup of Edo-era's cargo vessel on display at Swanotsuru Sake museum

Next stop was at Kobe Shu-shin-kan Brewery. On the map, the distance between two places seems not far, but it I felt I walked quite a distance. I learned that Fukuju brand sake from this brewery was used at Nobel prize awarding ceremony in Stockholm. Sake served at prestigious Western ceremony sounds strange to me, but the quality of this sake must be transcendent, rendering cultural difference meaningless. That sake was sold-out so nobody can not get hand on this until November. This place consists of four buildings, and I tried sake samplers at shop area. Tasting three different sake is a fun experience, but my novice tongue can not describe the character of each of them.

Entrance to brewing area at Kobe Shu-shin-kan Brewery

Large wooden vat on display at Kobe Shu-shin-kan Brewery

Sake samplers at Kobe Shu-shin-kan Brewery

After sampling sake, I walked further east to Hakutsuru. Hakutsuru means "white crane". Hakutsuru was established in 1743. It sounds not so old to me. This place prepares pamphlet not only in Japanese but also in English, Chinese, and Korean. I am not good at biology and chemistry, so how many times I see and hear sake production process, I can not memorize nor understand. I left Hakutsuru to walk further east to get to Uozaki-go.

The Hakutsuru Sake Brewery Museum in Mikage-go

Signpost of Uozaki-go 

I seldom drink sake, but this Kikumasamune brand must be famous as even I recognize this name. This establishment is also designated as "important tangible folk-cultural property". I feel the black wall of this wooden building oozes the atmosphere and history of sake brewer. This neighborhood has museums, but it also has actual facilities that produce sake in quantities. That atmosphere reminds me of my visit to St. James gate, Dublin, where Guinness Co. has museum and production facilities both in one neighborhood.

Kikumasamune Sake Museum building at Mikage-go and Uozaki-go border

Watermill can be seen at Kikumasamune Sake museum ground

Even though I took some amount of sake at Kobe Shu-shin-kan, I minimized my take of sake as I had to walk quite a distant. Due to combined effect of late summer heat and distance I walked, I was quite tired at the point when I entered Uozaki-go. At Hamafukutsuru, 9 minutes of video was continuously played in the panel and exhibition course. The old fashioned story-teller explained the history of this brewery, and it was very funny. So I sat and watched, but it seemed I fell asleep at some point. But I saw only a couple of visitors when I was there, so I was not embarrassed by my falling asleep.

Large wooden vats at Hamafukutsuru Ginjo Brewery and Shop in Uozaki-go

My last stop of the day was Sakuramasamune, which is located a little walk from Hamafukutsuru. This place has two restaurants. One is ordinary restaurant, but the other seems to offer sophisticated and traditional course, which in turn means expensive. And that one is open after 5 PM. I expected that all the museums and related facilities are from 9/10 in the morning to 16/17 in the evening. Anyway, the expensive is not for me, so I just saw and appreciated the old wooden tools on display and exhibition room.

Entrance of Sakuramasamune "Sakuraen" in Uozaki-go

Sakuramasamune building has its pond inside premises

Now I covered Kobe part of Nada breweries more or less. Next I like to walk Nishinomiya part of Nada breweries. One of the fun is to sample sake at the location where it is made of course, but I have to moderate the quantity of consumption if I like to cover many of them in a day as I have to walk a lot. Besides actually drinking sake, I like to learn the history of ancient and recent. Ancient history of sake brewing, and recent history of recovering from the deadly earthquake of 1995.