Common name (Japanese 酒) in Europe for rice wine. The term sake is used in the Occident regardless of the origin of the product; the term "Japanese sake", however, is a protected term. In Japanese, the word sake (pronounced honourably as o-sake) only refers to seishu or nihonshu, i.e. rice wine, in a narrower sense. Sake is also a collective term for wine, beer and alcoholic drinks in general. Nihonshu is used colloquially, seishu is the technical term, so to speak. To avoid misunderstandings, these two terms should therefore be used. Despite the name, sake is much more like beer than wine, as the sugar must first be broken down for fermentation. Sake is still the national drink in Japan.
Rice wine has been produced in Japan since the 3rd century BC. At this time, the very labour-intensive cultivation of wet rice was introduced, but this allowed much higher yields to be achieved. Rites of the Shinto religion have been handed down, in which rice was chewed by girls and then spat into vessels. This had a fermentative effect, converting the rice starch into sugar. Yeasts from the air caused spontaneous fermentation. The end product had a low alcohol content and was consumed like porridge. From the 5th century onwards, fungal cultures were used for fermentation. The production of sake in Japan was initially limited to the imperial court and was gradually transferred to the monasteries. The Gekkeikan brewery in Kyōto has been producing sake since 1637.
Production
First, the rice grains are "polished", i.e. the bran layers are removed (Japanese sei-mai = polish rice). The more this is done, the finer the product. In the case of high-quality sake, up to half of the...
