{"id":320,"date":"2009-10-29T15:56:07","date_gmt":"2009-10-29T19:56:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sakayanyc.com\/blog\/wordpress\/?p=320"},"modified":"2009-10-29T15:56:07","modified_gmt":"2009-10-29T19:56:07","slug":"wataribune-wonder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sakayanyc.com\/blog\/wataribune-wonder\/","title":{"rendered":"The Wonder of Wataribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Wataribune<\/a><\/p>\n

Accompanied by our friend Melinda<\/a>, I set out early the morning following the SSI awards event for Huchuhomare Shuzo<\/a> in Ishioka, a small town in Sonoma-like Ibaraki-ken<\/a>, about an hour and a half north by train from Shinjuku station in Tokyo.\u00c2\u00a0 On our arrival at Ishioka station, we were greeted warmly by the smiling shacho-san (brewery President) Takaaki \"Yamauchi<\/a>Yamauchi.\u00c2\u00a0 As he drove us to his family-owned brewery, we discussed the local effects of the typhoon which had made landfall in eastern Japan the day before, destroying several older buildings nearby.\u00c2\u00a0 Fortunately, no harm had come to any of the inhabitants!\u00c2\u00a0 (Aside from high winds which temporarily shut down rail service, the much-anticipated typhoon had been a non-event in Tokyo).<\/p>\n

\"IMG_2921_1\"<\/a>Following a welcome of tea and sweets in the ancient reception room, Yamauchi-san led us on an intriguing tour of the kura.\u00c2\u00a0 We then tasted the full line of Wataribune nihonshu as he described the history of the brewery and how he had come to use the unique Wataribune strain of\u00c2\u00a0 sakamai (sake rice varietal) to make his sake.\u00c2\u00a0 It seems that a former high-ranking Ministry of Agriculture official who had retired to the locale, about twenty years ago suggested that Huchuhomare consider resurrecting the long-ago used pure strain.\u00c2\u00a0 Only problem was that all they could find was about 15 grams of seeds in the seed bank.\u00c2\u00a0 Not a lot to start a rice field with!\u00c2\u00a0 Nevertheless, they planted it, collected the \"Wataribune<\/a>seeds each year and eventually cultivated a sufficient supply for sake brewing.\u00c2\u00a0 The story came to life quickly as our next stop was that very rice field itself which surrounds our lunch destination, the homemade tofu and soba restaurant owned and operated by, you guessed it, the gentleman who brought Wataribune to Yamauchi-san!<\/p>\n

To learn more about the wonder of Wataribune, read this<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Accompanied by our friend Melinda, I set out early the morning following the SSI awards event for Huchuhomare Shuzo in Ishioka, a small town in Sonoma-like Ibaraki-ken, about an hour and a half north by train from Shinjuku station in Tokyo.\u00c2\u00a0 On our arrival at Ishioka station, we were greeted warmly by the smiling shacho-san […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,22,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brewers","category-japan","category-basic"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Wonder of Wataribune - Sakaya NYC Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Wonder of Wataribune - Sakaya NYC Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Accompanied by our friend Melinda, I set out early the morning following the SSI awards event for Huchuhomare Shuzo in Ishioka, a small town in Sonoma-like Ibaraki-ken, about an hour and a half north by train from Shinjuku station in Tokyo.\u00c2\u00a0 On our arrival at Ishioka station, we were greeted warmly by the smiling shacho-san […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.sakayanyc.com\/blog\/wataribune-wonder\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sakaya NYC Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-10-29T19:56:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.sakayanyc.com\/blog\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/IMG_2931_1-300x225.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rick\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rick\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.sakayanyc.com\\\/blog\\\/wataribune-wonder\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.sakayanyc.com\\\/blog\\\/wataribune-wonder\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Rick\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.sakayanyc.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/4a23adde09de0b2ce7faa9896bbfa030\"},\"headline\":\"The Wonder of Wataribune\",\"datePublished\":\"2009-10-29T19:56:07+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.sakayanyc.com\\\/blog\\\/wataribune-wonder\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":307,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.sakayanyc.com\\\/blog\\\/wataribune-wonder\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.sakayanyc.com\\\/blog\\\/wordpress\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2009\\\/10\\\/IMG_2931_1-300x225.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Brewers\",\"Japan\",\"sake\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.sakayanyc.com\\\/blog\\\/wataribune-wonder\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.sakayanyc.com\\\/blog\\\/wataribune-wonder\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.sakayanyc.com\\\/blog\\\/wataribune-wonder\\\/\",\"name\":\"The Wonder of Wataribune - 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