Kobe City

Even if you’ve never set foot in Japan, there’s a good chance you’ve tried sake, as rice wine is famous worldwide. In Japan, however, sake is a mainstay of bars and restaurants. The beverage has a long history in the country and throughout Asia. Preparing, serving, and drinking sake is an art form passed down for generations spanning several centuries. What Is Sake? In Japanese, the word “sake” refers to any alcoholic drink. The beverage you know as sake is locally called “nihonshu,” and its origins are unknown. The earliest reference to an alcoholic beverage in Japan is in the Book of Wei in the Records of the Three Kingdoms. There are mentions of alcohol in other historical records over the years, but sake didn’t become a combination of rice, water, and koji mold, as we know it today, until the Nara period (710 to 794). Its popularity continued to grow, and during the Heian period (794 to 1185), sake was served at festivals, ceremonies, and games. For a long time, the Japanese government monopolized the production of sake. However, temples and shrines started making their own in the 10th century and remained the top producers for half a millennium.…