AGE-OLD SAKE BREWERYIN NOTO
TAKES ON NEW CHALLENGESIN WAKE OF EARTHQUAKE

Noto Peninsula

On New Year’s Day 2024, the Noto Peninsula was struck by a major earthquake,heavily damaging many buildings, including a long-established sake brewerythat had been using traditional brewing methods for more than a century.
Emerging from the devastation, however, the female proprietor of the brewery,with a passion for sake brewing and Noto itself, has started to produce a new sakethanks to support from all over the country.
Jutting into the Sea of Japanfrom central Honshu, the Noto
Peninsula of Ishikawa Prefecture
presents a rich natural landscapein which residents have peacefully
led their daily lives over thecenturies to create a uniqueculture. The Food and Agriculture

Organization (FAO) of theUnited Nations has recognized
the Noto Peninsula as a “GloballyImportant Agricultural Heritage
System,”acknowledging
itssatoyama and satoumi as “areas
extending from the mountains tothe sea that are closely connected

As a peninsula surrounded by the sea on threesides, one of Noto’s specialties, naturally, is fresh
seafood (top). The region’s sake is characterized bya strong taste that brings out the flavor of seafood.

and entwined in terms of land use,
agriculture, forestry and fisheries,”
as well as its food culture, festivals,crafts, and biodiversity. In recentyears, Noto has become a popular
destination for foreign tourists aswell, as they come to get a glimpseof its nature and culture.

Terraced rice fields such asthese—the Shiroyone Senmaida
of Wajima City—are typicallyfound throughout the NotoPeninsula. The rice paddies(shown pre-quake in the photo)were also damaged by theJanuary 1 tremor, but restoration
efforts are already underway.

On January 1, 2024, a major
earthquake struck the peninsula.
One of the structures that sufferedextensive damage from the quake
was an old building with morethan 150 years of history—
Matsunami Shuzo, a sake brewery
founded in 1868 in Noto Town.
Looking beyond the rubble to thefuture is KINSHICHI Seiko, theseventh-generation proprietor of
the brewery.
Giving her impetus andencouragement, several sakebreweries from outside the region
contacted her a few days after thequake, telling her, “We will dowhatever we can to help.” With
more offers of support continuing
to come in, some of the brewery’s
rice—the raw material for sake—was salvaged from a collapsed
warehouse about a month later.
Using that rice, Kinshichi has
started brewing a new sake at adifferent brewery in the same
prefecture that fortunately went
unscathed during the tremor.
“Sake is what we do for a living,”
she says. “It is something we enjoy
and want to continue; that is why
I create sake.”Matsunami Shuzo makes sake inthe traditional fashion, using water
pumped from wells and authentic
wooden tools. Most of the brewing
process is done by hand, without
the use of large machines—thatis the brewing method that
Kinshichi hopes to pass down in
Noto well into the future. Indeed,
it is her ardent desire to keep
Noto’s sake alive, as it is created outof a passion for tradition, culture,and community.
Since ancient times, a group of
master sake brewers in Noto has
been supporting sake-brewing
activities throughout the country,
helping to hand down brewing
skills. Kinshichi emphasizes,“Sake is not just a luxury product.
Both sake and sake breweries are
an integral part of this land.” In
this region, where old customs
and festivals remain, sake is stilla part of everyday life. Sake is so
entwined in the local culture that
if it were to disappear, so, too,would the culture around it. The
residents’ message to Kinshichi
resonates with emotion: “Thereconstruction of our town begins
with the rebuilding of the sakebrewery.”
Sake breweries nationwide havealso joined forces to protect sakebrewing in Noto, with steadyprogress being made in a variety ofways. Additionally, beneficial use
is being made of the knowledge
gained from sake breweries inTohoku that survived the Great
East Japan Earthquake of 2011.
Living in such a disaster-prone
country, the people of Japan
have a deeply felt urge to shareexperience and knowledge formutual aid.
Although Noto is still in theprocess of recovering, other areas
in Ishikawa Prefecture were lessaffected by the earthquake—not
only the ancient city of Kanazawa,
but also areas such as Komatsu andKaga—and they all offer their own
unique cultures, and by extension,
their own sake. Accordingly, now
is the time to visit those otherareas and experience the culture
and food rooted in the prefecture,
as Kinshichi recommends.
At the same time, she also
expresses her desire to export
Matsunami Shuzo sake overseas
at the earliest opportunity, a goalof the brewery since before theearthquake. “I hope that people
will come back to Noto again
someday. Personally, I would also
like to travel abroad more often,”
Kinshichi says cheerfully.

KINSHICHI Seiko salvages sake rice from a collapsed warehouse (left). Many volunteers from all overthe country came to help.