Slow and steady: A brewer stirring the mixture of rice, koji, water and yeast starter inside a giant tank as a part of the fermentation process to brew sake at Ishikawa Shuzou, or Ishikawa Brewery, in Fussa. — Reuters
AT a Tokyo brewery dating back to the days of the samurai, Koichi Maesako drops a 3m-long wooden paddle into a giant, jade-coloured tank and gently stirs the white mixture that will turn into sake in a week’s time.
The sweet-and-sour-smelling brew – of rice, yeast starter, the culinary mould known as koji and water – has been fermenting for 20 days in what is part of an ancient technique that Unesco is set to list as Intangible Cultural Heritage this week.
