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Toppage ＞ Shudo - The Way of Sake＞ chapter3 |
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| Workers at sake brewery are busy at this time of the year, at the peak of sake making. Their hard work can be seen through a cloud coming up from steamed rice, the main ingredient of sake. |
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Toshihajime, the Beginning of the Year |
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 January is called shogatsu under the lunar calendar. Earlier, the month was called musubitsuki or mutsuki, for short, meaning a month when friends and relatives get together.
January has other aliases: the early green month, the royal spring month, the first month of spring and many more. Since the lunar calendar starts a year about one and a half month after the solar calendar, its new year comes with the arrival of spring. That is why people use seasonﾕs greetings in January that welcome or celebrate spring.
Most of January falls on Kan, the coldest period of the year. Kan starts with Kan-no-iri on January fifth, peaks with Daikan on January 20th and ends on Setsubun around mid-February.
The typical atmospheric pressure pattern in January with a high pressure over western Japan and a low over the eastern Japan brings dry, fair weather to the Pacific coast and stagnant thick clouds and many snowy days to the Japan Sea coast.
Cold waves from the Asian continent hit the mountain ranges that cut through the country from north to south like a spine. As they hit the mountains, they turn their damp air into snow. After moisture was taken out of cold waves, they bring dry, gusty winds down to the other side of the mountain, regions on the Pacific coast.
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Toso,Spiced Sake |
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The New Year’s Day
Welcome the flowery spring
With toso
(Sampu)
On the morning of the New Year’s Day, a traditional Japanese family would take a bath, get fresh water, clap hands before a household Shinto altar and think about their ancestors before a Buddhist altar at home. Family members would then sit around a dining table and have a cup of toso. The ritual gives a good tension as families reaches another milestone in their lives.
Many people have dropped the tradition of drinking toso on the New Year’s Day. Toso was originally medical sake prescribed by Dr. Huatuo, a distinguished Chinese doctor in the Wei Dynasty. When taken on the New Year’s Day, toso is said to repel diseases all year around and help people live longer.
Toso literally means to kill an evil. Records show Japanese people first had toso in Heian Period between the late 8th century and the early 12th century.
Toso contains spices such as cinnamon bark, sansho (zanthoxylum, kankyo or zingiberis siccatum) byakugyu (blelilla striana), and saishi (herba asari). These spices are said to help keep the stomach healthy, bring down a fever, help urinating, and suppress coughs.
During the New Year’s holidays, people tend to eat and drink a lot. This is also difficult time for people to keep regular hours. As a result, they often have problems in their digestive systems. What’s more, the dry weather of the season makes people susceptible to common cold, flu, bronchitis and other respiratory diseases. Toso’s medical effects help protect people from having these health problems.
By tradition, all family members sit facing east when drinking toso. The youngest member of the family is the first to drink and then pass the cup to older members of the family in the ascending order.
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Osechi New Year Dishes and Celebratory Sake |
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When the ritual to welcome the arrival of spring is completed, let’s sit down around a dinner table for the New Year’s feast.
In a dining room, you might find seasonable flowers for the New Year - daffodils, senryo (Sarcandra Glabra), manryo (Ardisia crenata), omoto (Rohdea japonica), young bamboo trees, kan-tsubaki or (Camellia hiemalis), and Camellia wabisuke. On the table, you might find sake cups made of fresh green bamboo.
Osechi dishes are beautiful to watch and appetizing. Different regions of the country have different dishes and different ways of serving them. Generally, Osechi dishes are served in four-tiered boxes in four different colors symbolizing the four seasons - blue for spring, white for summer, red for autumn and black for winter.
The first tier is for kuchitori, or appetizers. The second tier contains namasu, or raw fish and vegetables seasoned in vinegar. The third tier box features grilled fish. The fourth tier contains meat and vegetables cooked in soy-based sauce. When referring to the fourth tier, the Japanese character for four is replaced with the character for to give, which sounds the same as four in Japanese. This is because the number four in Japanese has the same sound as the Japanese word for death.
Try to take a bid of fish, a bit of meats, and a bit of everything to keep nutritious balance. Do not drink too much celebratory sake.
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Mizore-zake Sleety Sake |
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On a rainy day, you might notice something white in the rain. The rain has turned into sleet. It may turn snow as the temperature drops at night. How about Mizore-zake, or sleety sake at dinner on a sleety night like this?
Hundreds of years ago, a medical doctor from Nara Prefecture devised sleety sake when his visited Kyoto. Sleet falling into the ?sawa pond in the ancient capital inspired him to invent. He ventured to drink sake with small crumbs of rice crackers sprinkled on it. People in those days made much of sake made in Nara called Nanto-morohaku. Sleety sake made with Nanto-morohaku became known as one of reputed sake.
Nanto-morohaku was brewed at a vihara or monastery in Nara during Muromachi Period between late 14th century and late 16th century. It was known for its unparalleled splendid taste. Around 1560, sake brewing processes was shifted from the traditional nidan-jikomi, or double brewing to sandan-jikomi, or triple brewing. Moreover, a new process was developed to use white rice (polished rice) instead of the traditional brown rice (unpolished rice) to make rice malt. The sake made using this innovative process was called "Morohaku (all white)" because white rice was used to make both rice malt and Kakemai (steamed rice to make a mash).
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Let’s Use Chopsticks in a Refined Manner |
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 Just like sake cups, chopsticks are indispensable elements for parties, but manners in handling chopsticks are often neglected. So let’s focus on chopsticks this time.
Chopsticks are divided into two groups: those for hare (celebratory occasions) and those for ke (day-to-day use).
Celebratory chopsticks are used in Shinto rituals, New Year’s Day and other celebrations. They are thick in the middle and taper off toward both ends.
Chopsticks for daily use are the ones people use at home. They are thick on the top and become thinner towards the tips.
Disposable chopsticks can serve both purposes. They come as one piece of wood which can be easily pulled apart to make two pieces along a groove engraved in the middle. After they are used once, they are disposed. Their sanitary and convenient features and Japanese people’s love for cleanliness have together helped chopsticks find a wide use. They are one of utensils only found in Japan.
At a party, disposable chopsticks are generally used. High quality chopsticks are made of cedar with straight grains. For general use, chopsticks made of Japanese cypress, white birch, aspen and bamboo are used. Japanese cypress is generally considered quality wood but has little value as a material for disposable chopsticks because it does not have straight grains, which make it easy to split chopsticks.
An increasing number of restaurants use disposable chopsticks made of bamboo to take advantage of Chinese bamboo chopsticks being imported to Japan in bulk. But these chopsticks are very hard to pull apart.
Disposable chopsticks find their origin in the Yoshino region in Nara Prefecture. The region is Japanﾕs largest cedar producer. Around mid-19th century through the beginning of Meiji Era, many sake barrels produced in the region were shipped to major breweries in Itami, Ikeda and Nada in the neighboring prefectures. Barrel makers used odd pieces of cedar to make throw-away chopsticks. Today, with the demand for sake barrels dwindling, barks and odd pieces of woods left after producing lumbers for housing materials are used instead.
The interval between tree rings becomes closer as they go from the center to the bark. The use of barks therefore gives strength to disposable chopsticks and makes them hard to break.
Disposable chopsticks types now in use for general public are Ch?roku, Koban, and Genroku. Disposal chopsticks made of bamboos are also used.
Ch?roku chopsticks are plain without any extra processing. They are named after a coin used by ordinary people in Edo era between the early 17th century and mid-19th century.
The Koban is medium quality chopsticks for general use. They are about one centimeter longer than the Ch?roku. The Genroku has the highest quality of the three chopsticks for general public. Genroku chopsticks are rounded off on the corners and processed to make it easy to split them.
High quality disposal chopstick types are Riky? and Tensoge.
The Riky? was devised by Sen Rikyu, who founded the Senke School of tea ceremony. Rikyu chopsticks are thick in the middle and tapered toward both ends. The design caught attention of a chopstick maker in Kyoto. The maker developed Riky? disposable chopsticks based on the tea master’s idea.
Tensoge chopsticks have slantly cut tops. Corners on the chopsticks are not rounded except for the ends, which are cornered and grooved. Tensoge boasts its beautiful straight grains.
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Tips for Splitting Chopsticks in a Refined Manner |
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Most people might consider disposable chopsticks as transient, because they are used only once and thrown away.
In fact, disposable chopsticks are one of important utensils that help enrich party occasions. Yet, most people do not care about that when they pull apart disposal chopsticks. Such indifferent attitudes in effect spoil the occasion from the beginning.
If you are right-handed, pick up chopsticks with your right hand, and bring them to in front of you. Use your thumb and index finger to pull one piece away from you. Swing your right arm as if to draw an arc in front of you. Both men and women should look more elegant this way than in any other ways.
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Keep the Tips of Chopsticks Clean |
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If you are not careful, your chopsticks will have pieces of foods not only on the tips but on a wider part of them. An old saying goes up to three centimeters from the tips should be used. Be careful not to use upper part of chopsticks when you eat. |
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Keep the Chopstick Rest Clean |
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Don’t put the tips of chopsticks on a chopstick rest. Doing so does little harm on ceramic chopstick rests or lacquer-ware. But when a chic sooty bamboo rest is used at a party, you don’t want soup or sauce on chopsticks to seep into the rest. Stick out the tips a little from a rest and keep it dry. |
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『Yellowtail』 |
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 The yellowtail is most delicious this season with its fat content and flavor at its peak. It is called by different names in different stages of its life as if it were promoted. That’s why it is called fish with a successful career. It is also called by different names in different regions. In Tokyo, the yellowtail of up to 20 centimeters is called Wakashi, up to 40 centimeters, Inada, up to 60 centimeters, Warasa, and when it grows longer than 90 centimeters, it is called Buri. Fresh ones are best eaten raw, i.e. sashimi. The fish is also delicious when grilled, or seasoned in soy sauce or sake lees.
Being a migratory fish, part of yellowtail meat has a high blood content. Some people don’t like the part and remove it when they eat. What a waste! Sharing the same sort of tissues with a liver, the meat is full of vitamins. It is rich in Vitamin B1 and B2, and has iron and potassium, too. It is a nutritious food to go well with sake.
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『Halibut』 |
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 In Japan, two types of halibut are popular; the flounder, which has both eyes on the left side of the body and the right-eyed flounder. The flounder is at its peak in January and offer rich taste. The flounder’s meat at the bottom of the fins is considered a delicacy, and eaten raw. The fish is also eaten after rolled up by kelps. The dish will enrich the flavor of sake. |
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『Radish』 |
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 The daikon radish is on store shelves all year around, and people do not think much of the vegetable. It is also called suzushiro, one of seven herbs of spring. People say the whole family is free of stomachache as long as they eat daikon radish. The vegetable is at its peak this time of the year. It can be added to Japanese oden hotchpotch, a salad, and many other dishes. In fact, daikon should appear more often at a drinking party. Grated daikon is indispensable relish for mochi, or rice cakes and soba or buckwheat noodles. |
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| Translated by Stephen Hanson
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