Tadatsugu Inoue
Seven with Signor Sake: Tadatsugu Inoue (Mii no Kotobuki, Fukuoka)
I’m asking seven questions to my favourite sake makers to hear their story and get their take on the centuries-old craft.
It was a trip to Bordeaux that changed the direction of fourth generation Tadatsugu’s family brewery which dates back to 1922. After joining in 1996 as an assistant for his father, he now acts as master brewer and executive director, running a tight ship with a team of five along with his younger brother. Located in Fukuoka, Kyushu, the southern-most main island of Japan, Mii no Kotobuki produce a range of sake including aromatic and flavour-driven styles as well as dangerously drinkable aged ones.
1. I’m curious to know why you have a range of sake with Italian-inspired labels?
It’s simply a love for Italy. I’ve visited over ten times and absolutely love the country, its food and culture. I wanted to share my passion for the country and also communicate the seasonal aspect of sake so I went with using the season names in Italian for one range of our sake.
2. What’s been your approach to brewing since taking over in 2002?
At our brewery, we value locality, quality and originality. This means using local rice from the Kyushu area and brewing quality sake that only our brewery can produce. Although sake has a long history, going back to at least the Edo period (1603-1868), and has been studied scientifically in recent years, there’s still a lot more to be discovered. I also feel that brewing is not too dissimilar to cooking. It’s about sense and feeling, and of course passion.
There’s a saying or code in Japan that all sake brewers practice: first koji, second starter, third fermentation. I also think koji is fundamental to sake flavour, and that’s why I make koji myself, and don’t want to let others touch it.
“There’s a saying or code in Japan that all sake brewers practice: first koji, second starter, third fermentation.”
3. I read that you and your father went to Bordeaux in the 1980s and that it had a profound effect on the direction of your brewery.
I love wine, and Fukuoka and Bordeaux happen to be sister cities, so it was only natural that we would visit it eventually. My father and I took a trip to five wineries in Bordeaux. At that time, we were producing sake exclusively for large breweries, a common industry practice, which is all about producing volume. The grading system for sake was completely different back then too. There were three grades: special, first and second.
After the visit to France and seeing the world of wine with quality and terroir being at the forefront, we started to think about ending our contract to supply the large brewery and switched to making exclusively junmai sake. That was also when the idea of ‘locality, quality and originality’ was born.
“We were producing sake exclusively for large breweries, a common industry practice.”
4. What challenges have you experienced as a brewer?
Pronounced acidity in sake was considered a negative when I first started brewing twenty years ago. Today, things are different and it’s something that brewers are placing more importance on since acidity is necessary when pairing with food. Switching to produce sake with more acidity has been challenging but something that we started early on, like using yamahai starters and wine yeasts. We are also challenging ourselves to do things out of the ordinary, such as adopting a method similar to batonage.
“Pronounced acidity in sake was considered a negative when I first started brewing twenty years ago.”
5. You’ve been writing on the labels exactly where the rice comes from. Why is that?
Yamada Nishiki is considered to be the king of rice for the sake industry with the most prized coming from Hyogo prefecture. To meet our aim of locality, however, we started sourcing ours from the Itoshima area of Fukuoka. Today, Yamada Nishiki from the Itoshima area is second in terms of production volume after the Hyogo grown variety, and just as good in my opinion. We added the origin of the rice to our labels to promote the area and its rice.
“To meet our aim of locality, we started sourcing our rice from the Itoshima area of Fukuoka.”
6. What’s the story behind your association with the famous basketball manga series Slam Dunk?
Although the manga story is based in Shonan, near Tokyo, a lot of the characters are actually the names of places in Fukuoka. The author, who is also from Fukuoka, has the same family name as me, and there was a time when a lot of people thought we were relatives. Actually, the author seems to be a fan of our sake and he named one of the popular characters in the manga after our brewery name. To return the favour, we then created a red sake label with the number +14 enlarged to mimic the basketball player’s uniform. In our case, the number is a measure of the sweetness of the sake, and +14 is bone dry.
7. Sake has had a long, difficult period competing with wine and beer. Do you think it’s turned a corner?
I’m optimistic about the sake market. Wine used to have a limited market (in Japan), but it grew, and so will the sake market. With sake getting more popular abroad, the current level of production in Japan might not be enough to sustain the demand but this will push the market to grow. I think the future for sake is bright.
SIGNOR SAKE FAVOURITE
Biden Kojo
Made with Kokuryo Miyako rice, a variety that was revived with the help of Kyushu university after almost vanishing as other rice types were simply easier to grow. Kojo, meaning old castle, is aged in bottle for two years before its release. A pronounced savoury character, dry with puckering acidity and notes of dried fig and musk melon.
Rice type: Itoshima Kokuryo Miyako (Fukuoka)
Polished to: 70%
Yeast: ambient
Alcohol: 15%
Category: Junmai (Yamahai)
Subcategory: undiluted, no charcoal fining.
