Myasaka
Brewing Company
The
Brewery
Masumi is one of the great names of the sake
world, admired throughout Japan for its satisfying
taste and unshakeable, down-to-earth reliability. The
brewery where it is made was founded in 1662 in the
town of Suwa, where a tradition of precision
craftsmanship had led to the development of the silk
spinning trade. Attention to detail remains at the
heart of the Masumi brewing philosophy to this day.
In 1920, the brewery's president, Masaru Miyasaka,
appointed a 28-year-old sake prodigy named Chisato
Kubota to the position of brewmaster. The two
travelled throughout Japan in the manner of Zen monks,
"knocking on the door of the master and seeking
knowledge." This keen desire to elevate the
quality of Masumi sake, combined with a shared
openness of mind, was rewarded in 1936 when Miyasaka
Brewing Company won the first of many top honors at
the Japan National Sake Appraisal.
Masumi achieved even greater prominence in 1946
when brewmaster Kubota, discovering a lovely aroma
emanating from one of the brewery's fermentation
tanks, requested that an expert from the National
Research Institute of Brewing be called in for
consultation. Samples were taken and it was soon
confirmed that a new yeast variety, Association No. 7,
had been discovered.
In the sake world, discovering a new yeast is like
receiving the Nobel Prize, and only a handful of
breweries enjoy this distinction. With its gentle,
pleasing aroma and ease of use, No. 7 soon spread
beyond Nagano Prefecture, and today continues to be
used by over half of the breweries in Japan. In 2002,
Masumi released a redolent, old-style sake with an
insouciant 21st-century attitude called
"Nanago" (No. 7) in tribute to the famous
microorganism to whom the sake world owes so much.
The
Sakes |
