The was a method of making

sake Sake, also spelled saké ( ; also referred to as Japanese rice wine), is an alcoholic beverage of Japanese origin made by fermenting rice that has been polished to remove the bran. Despite the name ''Japanese rice wine'', sake, and indee ...

during the

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...

at the in the

Amagasaki Domain 250px, Reconstructed Amagasaki Castle tenshu was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, located in Settsu Province in what is now the southeastern portion of modern-day Hyōgo Prefecture. It had its administrative h ...

of the former

Settsu Province was a province of Japan, which today comprises the southeastern part of Hyōgo Prefecture and the northern part of Osaka Prefecture. It was also referred to as or . Osaka and Osaka Castle were the main center of the province. Most of Settsu's ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

(now Takarazuka,

Hyōgo Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Hyōgo Prefecture has a population of 5,469,762 () and has a geographic area of . Hyōgo Prefecture borders Kyoto Prefecture to the east, Osaka Prefecture to the southeast, an ...

). Today, the method is used by homebrew enthusiasts or by small

boutique A boutique () is a small shop that deals in fashionable clothing or accessories. The word is French for "shop", which derives ultimately from the Ancient Greek ἀποθήκη (''apothēkē'') "storehouse". The term ''boutique'' and also ''d ...

brewers.

History

The Kohama style is a direct descendant of techniques used by temple priests near the

Mukogawa River The is a river in the south-eastern part of Hyōgo Prefecture. This river was selected as the second most important river in the region by the prefecture governor. Its total length is 66 kilometers, and the drainage area is 496 square kilometers ...

in southeastern Hyōgo Prefecture, who learned their distillation techniques from the Nara style. This style spread quickly through the area by Sessen Jūnigō (摂泉十二郷) to places such as

Itami 270px, Gogadzuka Kofun 270px, Aerial view of Itami city center 270px, Konoike inari shihi 270px, Arioka Castle ruins ) is a city located in Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 197,215 in 83580 households and a ...

Ikeda Ikeda may refer to: * Ikeda (surname), a Japanese surname * Ikeda (comics), a character in ''Usagi Yojimbo'' * Ikeda clan, a Japanese clan * Ikeda map, chaotic attractor * Ikeda (annelid), ''Ikeda'' (annelid) a genus of the family Ikedidae Places< ...

, and Kōike. The sake was produced, then shipped down the Mukogawa River to

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2. ...

, where it was then shipped to Edo. However, Sessen fell out of favor with the shogunate, which then began to regulate the brewing of the Kohama sake, and the style eventually disappeared by the middle of the Edo period.

Formula

The recipe for making Kohama style sake was discovered in old documents from the period, and it was found to similar to a more dry type of the Itami style of sake, while having its own bouquet. The mold used to make the sake helps to precipitate the proteins out of the sake brew, thereby helping it to clarify into the final product. The full details are found in the , a record from the Edo Period.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kohama-ryu Science and technology during the Edo period Hyōgo Prefecture Japanese drinks