Shirayuki: Japan's Oldest Surviving Sake Brand Name, From 1550 in Itami

There are older breweries in Japan. There is no older sake brand name still in use.

1550

The Konishi family set up in Itami, in what is now Hyogo Prefecture, in 1550, trading in medicinal alcohol.

Sake brewing became the main business around 1612. Then, roughly 1635, the second-generation head named their sake Shirayuki, white snow, after the snow-covered peak of Mount Fuji. That name has been in continuous use ever since, which makes it the oldest surviving sake brand name in Japan.

For scale: 1550 is before the unification of Japan under Nobunaga, Hideyoshi and Ieyasu. 1635 is early Edo period. This brand was already established before most of the breweries anyone can name existed at all.

Itami and Clear Sake

Itami's claim is bigger than one company. The town calls itself the birthplace of seishu, clear refined sake.

Before that, sake was cloudy. The Itami brewers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries developed the filtering and refining techniques that produced clear sake, which is the form nearly all sake takes today. From Itami it went to Edo by ship, and the demand it created there is a large part of why the Nada region eventually industrialized around brewing.

Konishi still holds family records called the Sake Eitai Oboe-cho, documenting how the brewery worked from the Edo period through Meiji. They use them to recreate historical styles, which means the archive is a working document rather than a display piece.

The Junmai Ginjo

Junmai means only rice, water, koji and yeast, with no distilled alcohol added. Ginjo means the rice is polished to at least 60%, and brewed with the slow, cold fermentation that produces fragrant sake.

The result here is fragrant, with white peach and honeydew, a silky smooth palate and a clean finish. Fruit-forward and elegant rather than heavy, which is the house style.

How to Drink It

Well chilled, in a sake glass or a white wine glass.

The aromatics are the point. A wide-mouthed glass gives the peach and melon notes room, and a small ochoko will hide them.

Pair It With

Hamachi sashimi, ebi tempura, delicate dishes generally. This is not a bottle for anything heavily sauced.

Try It at Juraku

Shirayuki Junmai Ginjo is on the sake list at Izakaya Juraku, Lower East Side. Check the current menu or ask us what is open.