For The Sake Of Japanese Sake
Are you soon planning a stay in Japan and hoping to find out more about this wonderful culture and the Japanese people’s favorite activities? Perhaps you are studying Japanese culture in school or even on your own and are wanting to know just a little bit more about Japanese cultural history and just what makes Japanese people unique in a certain way. Whatever your reasons, there is an aspect of Japanese culture that should certainly be given some fair attention in order to understand the people and the society as a whole. It is an aspect of daily life for many in Japan and is often even revered in religious shrines and festivals.
Japanese “Sake”, pronounced “Sah-kay” or also “Oh-sah-kay” (honorable Sake), is a type of alcoholic beverage made from rice. In Japan the word actually refers to alcoholic beverages in generally, including western alcohol such as beer and wine. In Japan, Sake is specifically referred to by the name “Nihonshu” (pronounced “nee-hone-shoo”). While Sake is commonly referred to as “Rice wine” in western cultures, it is actually a very different process to produce Sake than that employed for making wine from grapes or other fruits. The process for making Sake is actually much more similar to brewing beer than it is to wine production. This makes sense considering that the rice and barley used in both of their relevant brewing processes are grains.
In Japan, Sake is a very popular beverage and one can not easily express just how historically significant it has been in Japanese society and its culture. It has also historically been a very important aspect of Japanese politics and the government once relied rather heavily on Sake for its funding via a rather high rate of taxation at certain points.
The “religious” background of Sake is intriguing as the drink has rather obvious relevance when visiting many shrines and other areas of similar importance. A large and colorful array of Sake containers is occasionally a decorative feature in many shrine areas. Anyone witnessing a traditional Japanese festival known as a “Matsuri” knows how vitally important Sake is to shrines and their customs in Japan. These festivals often feature a group of men carrying a smaller golden shrine on two poles through the town with a final and climactically Sake filled arrival at their local shrine grounds. It is a very celebratory and festive affair that must be attended if at all possible.
Japanese “Shinto” priests also perform a ritual using a special kind of Sake for a variety of common ceremonial occasions. Some such occasions may include: Weddings, store openings, victorious sporting events, and also political victories. It is essentially a ritual of celebration. It has a somewhat Dionysian history and is likely one of the only such styles of sacred celebration to have survived so purely to this day. The first recorded historical account of Sake use in Japan is supposedly from a Chinese text which simply describes the Japanese drinking Sake and dancing.
Hopefully you now understand even more about Sake and Japanese culture in general. The Japanese people, as most cultures, do love to celebrate whenever appropriate. Sake is a great way to join in the fun.
