Our sake-making process begins before spring, just as the tsukushi start to greet us. We sow the seeds of rice on the ground to feed the seedbeds in our own rice fields. We consider sake as a fruit wine; a drink made from the fruits of our land. It is perhaps, a brilliant reincarnation of delicious rice. As the autumn harvest arrives, our brewery is surrounded by the gently swaying golden fields of rice.
We cultivate our own rice.
Our ancestors’ original rice paddy lays in front of our brewery. Our fresh water and fruitful soil is a gift from above and our sacred honor. 20% of our in-house rice is used for our signature kanbai sake. For generations of sake-making, the belief that the process starts with rice cultivation has been passed down. To know the rice is to know the sake. As a sake brewery, it is our duty to understand every core of sake and the rice it comes from. We hope for another fruitful year ahead.
We grow four kinds of rice for our sake.
The four kinds of rice in our fields include Miyama Nishiki (美山錦), Aikoku (愛国), Hiyori (ひより), and Yamada Nishiki (山田錦). The latter, Yamada Nishiki, has become widely known, but of course, each type of rice has its own distinct flavor. We carefully study the taste and characteristics of each type of rice so that we can match the best rice to make each different type of sake with.
Aside from our own rice, all of the rice we use is from Miyagi Prefecture.
Kuramoto is infinitely loved by locals. We strongly believe that our land’s clean water and air source lead to the making of our distinguishable sake. Just as our land loves us, we love Miyagi, our beloved home, back. This is why we continue to support each other; we use the resources our fruitful land provides us with to transform it into sake that we can share with the world. When the big earthquake hit and our brewery collapsed, neighbors and citizens of Miyagi rushed to our help. For this, we are forever grateful, and wish to give back not only to the land, but the people who reside here.
Flow of rice making
Sowing
April Sowing
I will sow seeds in a nursery box filled with soil and grow seedlings first in a plastic house etc. It takes about 1 month to grow rice-planting size (about 15 cm in length).
Substitute
May Substitute
I will give a shiroki before rice planting. Water is put on the rice field, and the soil of the rice field is scattered. As the depth of the water is uniform, the fertilizer spreads evenly.
Rice planting
June Rice planting
I will plant nursery box seedlings in paddy field. Adjust between 30 cm between row and column, around 18 cm between stock and stock. The sense of distance that seedlings grow up in a good mood is important.
Weeding / removal
July Weeding / removal
It was only leaves and stems at this time. Young ears are sleeping in the stem. If you carefully pay attention to surrounding weeds and pests, we will watch the growth of rice
Pollination
August Pollination
When ears come out, flowers will bloom soon. Rice is a very small flower because pollen of stamen is "self-pollination" attached to the pistil of the same flower.
Harvest
September Harvest
Harvest time around the end of September when the rice field shines in golden color. I will cut rice with a machine called combine. The harvested rice removes only the paddies from the tip of the head and dries the unpolished rice in it.
And to the season of sake making...
