Naotaka Kawamura
Seven with Signor Sake - Naotaka Kawamura (Kawamura Shuzo, Iwate)
I’m asking seven questions to my favourite sake makers to hear their story and get their take on the centuries-old craft.
Naotaka Kawamura is somewhat of a lone wolf in Iwate, defying convention and producing sake that is more akin to the style of brewers in western Japan. His sakes aren’t light and dry like many in the Tohoku area, and they’re not the big-strapping brews that some of his friends make either. They’re somewhere in between—subtle, still flavour-driven and without the perfume.
A meeting with Shinkame, the sake maker from Saitama, was the impetus for a sake pilgrimage across Japan that led Naotaka to opt for a different direction in style of sake to his father. He created a new line to meet that goal, naming it Yoemon after his grandfather who founded the brewery.
Naotaka’s brewery is located in the small town of Ishidoriya, which is also where the Nanbu Toji guild was founded. As with all guilds, it oversees the practice of the craft, but its brewing philosophy influence extends well beyond its borders. There’s even a museum of the guild’s brewing history and culture in the town. Today, the number of Nanbu guild members remains strong and widespread, but Naotaka’s brewery is the only remaining one of the town.
1. Can you explain what we’re drinking?
We have three freshly pressed ‘Yoemon’ sakes from this week. They’re all undiluted with no charcoal fining. Only the rice variety is different. The red label is made with Miyama-Nishiki, the green one with Kameno-o, and the white one with Ginginga.
Since Miyama Nishiki is a hard-grain rice, it usually results in a light sake, but if you polish its outer layers (down to 55%), the taste comes out. The taste is rich and has a little roasted aroma, so it goes well with spicy stir-fried vegetables and meat dishes.
Kameno-o was cultivated for eating until around fifty years ago, and because it’s an old strain, it has a light taste with less umami content than Koshihikari and Hitomebore varieties. Therefore, even if you brew sake with it, the expression will be on the light side. The hint of green grass may be due to the strain being close to a wild variety.
Ginginga is a relatively soft-grain rice so you’ll get a gentle expression of umami. It has a slightly bitter aftertaste, so it’s a good match with spring vegetables and seafood, especially the sea squirts from Sanriku in Miyagi, which have some astringency.
2. Your family brewery dates back to 1922. Did you feel any pressure to take over?
I didn't have any particular pressure from my parents, but I knew I had to some day, so I took over the brewery without hesitation. My father was interested in various things. Let’s say that he liked to experiment. He bought a lot of brewing equipment, various machines and whatnot, and racked up a fair amount of debt—more than one hundred million yen. In the end, a lot of the equipment couldn’t be used to produce sake. My father gave up on the issue and handed it to me. But I didn’t want to use the equipment my father bought. I had my own vision of how to make sake. So I told my father that I agreed to take over the business, on the condition that I do it my way, without using that equipment.
“I had my own vision of how to make sake. So I told my father that I agreed to take over the business, on the condition that I do it my way.”
When I started to brew my own sake, it didn’t go well at first. My father warned me that I was going to run the company into the ground and told me to just make normal sake as we had always done. But I was determined to make it work and ignored his advice. I stuck to my guns. My father didn't know much about sake brewing, as he was never involved. It was more about crunching numbers and management for him. From the time I started working as a brewer, my approach to the business had shifted too, completely different from my father’s. I think he had no idea what I was aiming for, to be honest.
3. What are your memories as a child growing up in a sake brewery?
Unlike the enamel tanks that are used now, in the past, only wooden ones were used. These needed to be washed and dried regularly. There were lots of sake-making tools lying around. Since there were a lot of machines, it kind of felt like an amusement park. I didn't really understand how to make sake, but it was fun playing around the tools. It was a playground for me, a fascinating world for sure.
4. Where did your interest in sake come from?
When I was younger, I was more interested in distilled drinks. Forty years ago, there wasn’t quality sake on the market like there is today, and I just thought sake was like that. That’s part of the reason why I was doing just sales rather than brewing sake for a while after returning to the brewery. The change in direction for us as a brewery was around twenty years ago, when I was thirty-five. I met other brewers like the ones from Shinkame, the producer from Saitama, who exposed me to a whole new world of sake. That motivated me to start brewing. Until then, I thought that quality sake was floral, which Niigata is well known for. For ten years after that meeting, I travelled around Japan looking for a style that I would be happy to make.
“Forty years ago, there wasn’t quality sake on the market like there is today.”
During those ten years, I received a lot of information from other makers, which I was eventually able to absorb. That's how it all started. After I got back to the brewery, I shared my vision with the team and we started to brew. That was about fifteen years ago. Then my thinking changed again. As a salesperson of a brewery, you have a completely different perspective than a brewer. I was ready to get my hands dirty and start brewing. We were short-staffed and the timing was right. In retrospect, the brewers might have been annoyed that the brewery owner was going to join them on the ground, but I knew that the only way would be to take it seriously, so I jumped right in.
5. Some people call you an outlaw. Why is that?
In Tohoku, many brewers produce sake with floral aromas, and those makers get together regularly. I don’t make that style, and I sell my sake through shops run by people with, let’s say, unconventional ideas. I might be considered an outsider from the perspective of the people around me here in Iwate.
“I might be considered an outsider from the perspective of the people around me here in Iwate.”
Also, a lot of brewers attend events at hotels in Tokyo to promote their sake, and talk with buyers and customers. But I feel that the appeal of sake still isn’t strong despite all of these events for twenty or thirty years. Attending makes no sense, so I tend to avoid these events. I also have a strong relationship with my current distributors and I’m not interested in finding new ones at the expense of tarnishing these long-term ones. Maybe that’s why I’m called an outlaw.
6. You’re a good friend of Tokyo sake shop owner Honma, who some find a little prickly as he has some unique views on sake, like ageing unpasteurised sake at room temperature. Tell us about your business relationship with him.
About twenty years ago, I first visited his store with several people from other breweries. He only deals with sake he likes and believes in. I felt that he was alive with passion, a similar approach that I was taking to brew sake that I felt good about. Every year, we would send sake to him and get his feedback and talk about various things. Four years later, he finally agreed to start selling our sake and still does today.
Honma is a fan of Yamada Nishiki and Omachi rice varieties that originate from western Japan. I brew with them mainly because he likes them, but when he eventually retires, I may stop using them and focus on other varieties. He never used to buy sake made with Miyama Nishiki. The last time he bought an unpasteurised sake made with it from another brewery, it went bad so he lost interest, but I insisted that he try one of ours. When he finally drank it, he was pleasantly surprised and decided to buy it.
“My dream is to gradually become self-sufficient and grow my own rice.”
7. What does the future look like at Kawamura Shuzo?
Yamada Nishiki and Omachi are quality rice varieties, but I think local sake should be made with local varieties. Do you know Kenji Miyazawa? He was a famous novelist and poet from Hanamaki about one hundred years ago. He also studied and then taught agriculture. At that time he started cultivating the seeds of "Rikuba No. 132" that had been cultivated in this area. This year, I'm growing seeds too, but don’t quite have enough. Next year I might be able to make a batch of sake with that variety. My dream is to gradually become self-sufficient and grow my own rice.
SIGNOR SAKE FAVOURITE
Yoemon White Label - Ginginga
A tingling effervescence on the first few pours, it’s light but rich and packed with umami with a slight bitterness on the finish. Pair with spring vegetables and seafood as per Naotaka’s suggestion. Lots of ageing capabilities, all the Yoemon range really start to shine around the three year mark.
Despite Iwate being the home to one of the leading guilds in the country, there had never been an Iwate specific rice variety. After many requests from brewers, Iwate Agricultural Centre crossbred Dewasanzan (Yamagata Prefecture) and Akitashu No.49 (Akita Prefecture) to create Ginginga. It was named after the novel ‘Ginga Tetsudo no Yoru’ by Kenji Miyazawa.
Rice type: Ginginga (Iwate)
Polished to: 50%
Yeast: No. 7
Alcohol: 16%-17%
Category: Tokubetsu Junmai
Subcategory: no charcoal fining, unpasteurised, undiluted
