One Ten Black: A Junmai Daiginjo Named After a Kabuki Actor

The name is a translation problem with a good answer.

In Japan this sake is 百十郎, Hyakujuro. The characters read hundred, ten, and ro, so the export name became One Ten. Same sake, different alphabet.

Who Hyakujuro Was

Ichikawa Hyakujuro was a kabuki actor working around the turn of the twentieth century.

In 1931 he donated 1,200 cherry trees along the Shinkai River in Kakamigahara City, Gifu. They're still there, they're still called the Hyakujuro cherry trees, and the stretch is counted among Japan's Top 100 Cherry Blossom Spots.

The brewery is in Gifu. Naming their sake after him is a local tribute, not a marketing borrow.

The Brewery

Hayashi Honten was founded in 1920 in Gifu Prefecture and has been run by the Hayashi family for five generations. The current head is Rieko Hayashi, one of relatively few women running a Japanese sake brewery.

Why It's Called Black

The Hyakujuro labels reference kumadori, the bold painted makeup used in kabuki.

Kumadori isn't decoration. The colors are a code: they tell the audience what kind of character is on stage before anyone speaks. The range uses those face designs to distinguish the bottles, and this is the black one.

What's in the Glass

Junmai Daiginjo. SMV +3.0, 15–16% ABV.

Taste: Ultra-clean with a vibrant, rice-driven core

Notes: Wet river stone, a subtle milky softness

Finish: Crisp and clean

The mineral, wet-stone quality is the distinctive part. It gives the sake a coolness that keeps it from reading as simply polished and pretty, which is the trap a lot of daiginjo falls into.

Hyakujuro Black took a Gold Medal at Japan's Fine Sake Awards in 2014.

Why We Pour It

Because it's a daiginjo with a spine. Plenty of sake at this level is delicate and not much else. This one is clean but has a mineral edge that gives you something to hold onto.

How We Serve It

Chilled, around 50°F. Cold enough to keep it crisp, not so cold that the mineral character disappears.

Pair It With

Sashimi-leaning things where the minerality can work. Handrolls, yellowtail crispy rice, salmon ikura don, Hokkaido scallop skewers.

Try It at Juraku

One Ten Black is on the sake list at Izakaya Juraku, Lower East Side.