Yasuhiko Niida
Seven with Signor Sake: Yasuhiko Niida (Niida Honke, Fukushima)
I’m asking seven questions to my favourite sake makers to hear their story and get their take on the centuries-old craft.
Yasuhiko Niida is a sake brewer, a farmer, a community leader and the 18th person to carry the name Yasu and run Niida Honke, which dates back to 1711. It takes discipline, perseverance, determination, resilience and a strong family bond for a business to have that kind of longevity, but it hasn’t been without its challenges.
Since taking the helm in 1994, Yasuhiko has been looking to build on the work of his father and grandfather, who grew their own rice and championed sustainability with organic practices. Yasuhiko’s father started using naturally cultivated rice without pesticides or chemical fertilisers back in 1967. They were certified organic in 2007 and in the same year developed a fertiliser from rice straw, rice bran, bamboo and grass.
It was all going according to plan. Then disaster struck. The 2011 Tohoku earthquake shook the whole country physically and emotionally, and Fukushima was one of the places hit hardest by the ensuing tsunami and radioactive fallout. It took a while for the shock to wear off around the country, but the tarnishing of the Fukushima brand lingered. Nobody wanted to touch anything from the area. The Niida family’s 300-year legacy could have been wiped out.
Yasuhiko took action by introducing stringent checks and exacting controls on radiation at all levels of the production, from the harvesting and milling of rice to the bottling of the sake. This all helped rehabilitate the brand, but it was the community aspect that really changed things for the brewery. They organised events at the brewery to share their story, their practices and, of course, their drinks. Slowly but surely, people started to have confidence in their drinks and other produce from Fukushima.
Fukushima still bears the scars of the disaster, but Niida Honke survived, and even thrived, not because of a famous name, but because Yasuhiko put in the work to ensure his family’s legacy lives on.
1. What are the defining features of your three sake brands?
We used to have three labels, Tamura, Shizen-shu and Odayaka, but Tamura and Shizen-shu have been merged into one, which means there are just Niida Shizen-shu and Odayaka.
Niida Shizen-shu is the label that inspired us to start making natural sake. In Japan, organic cultivation means using organic fertilisers. Natural rice cultivation goes a step further and uses no organic fertilisers. It’s a low-intervention farming method with no chemical additions. We only use naturally grown rice without the use of pesticides and commercial fertilisers, and we only use natural yeast and lactic acid bacteria that live in the brewery. We also only use natural spring water from our local village.
Our brewery is close to being self-sufficient in terms of sake production, and this label has a strong, robust flavour, full of sweetness, umami and acidity. It’s made from barely milled rice, as close to brown rice as possible, with an average milling ratio of 80%.
Our other brand, Odayaka, is named after the brewery owner whose name is traditionally written with the Odayaka kanji character which means “gentle” in Japanese. I, (Yasuhiko), my father (Yasumitsu), and my grandfather (Yasusada) all use the same kanji character in our name. When a new generation takes over, they inherit the character in their name and this was the reason it was chosen for the label.
“We only use naturally grown rice without the use of pesticides and commercial fertilisers, and we only use natural yeast and lactic acid bacteria that live in the brewery.”
2. What inspired your grandfather to start using naturally cultivated rice?
Natural rice cultivation started in Japan in 1964 and sake made from that rice was released in 1967, so it must have been cultivated for the first time about three years before that. Mr. Mokichi Okada popularised the idea of growing crops using only natural methods. There is a group led by Mr. Okada, MOA (Mokichi Okada Association). MOA was originally a religious organisation, with Mr. Okada as its founder, who promoted the idea of living with nature. MOA asked my father to make a sacred sake from rice grown naturally as advocated by Mr. Okada. So, we started as farmers of natural cultivated rice. We were given an opportunity.
3. You use the term “natural rice.” How do you define it?
Natural rice is a combination of the two types of rice that I mentioned earlier: natural cultivation that is free of pesticides, chemicals, chemical and organic fertilisers, and so-called organic cultivation. Both types of cultivation are free of pesticides and chemical fertilisers. We are certified by Organic JAS in Japan.
“Organic certification is expensive to obtain and has little effect on sales.”
There is an effort to unify the rules for organic farming in Japan and abroad, and eventually it should be the same as the United States, but this is not progressing very well. Some have obtained organic certification in the United States and Europe. For example, among my friends, Matsumoto Sake Brewery in Okayama Prefecture and Tentaka Sake Brewery in Tochigi Prefecture have both. They, as well as Akishika, are members of the association of sake breweries that also do their own farming.
Organic certification is expensive to obtain and has little effect on sales. We obtain organic certification to check whether the farming and sake brewing we do is in line with the current standards. By receiving certification, we are able to tell our customers that we are doing the same. I wonder if Japan's organic food is still at a lower level compared to the United States.
“Farmers who have this sense of crisis understand that organic cultivation is difficult, but it’s something that must be done.”
4. Why are rice farmers so reluctant to cultivate organically?
Organic farming is time-consuming. On the other hand, from an organic cultivation perspective, current agriculture is abnormal. Farmers with this mindset think that it’s unnatural and scary to have only rice growing in a rice field. If we continue to use additions like pesticides, the output will drop and eventually rice plants will die. It may be fine now, but in the future, the rice fields will become more and more useless. Farmers who have this sense of crisis understand that organic cultivation is difficult, but it’s something that must be done. We even ask such farmers to sign contracts. As I mentioned earlier, during my father's era, farmers who grew rice organically for us for a lot of money often did bad things. They didn’t think organic farming would be that hard, so they started using pesticides when people weren’t looking. With these farmers, there is a huge gap in understanding and the way of thinking. Therefore, we can’t pressure farmers to adopt organic cultivation. If there are farmers who want to do it, we ask them why they want to do it.
“It’s a crisis when the people who produce the most important thing, food, have no money.”
There are fewer and fewer professional farmers because there is no national policy and it’s not very profitable. It’s a crisis when the people who produce the most important thing, food, have no money. Farming is hard work, but we need to create an environment where the income is commensurate with the work, and we need to educate children about this and create an environment where children want to farm.
5. What organic farming practices do you use?
What is different about our rice fields from those of other farmers is that there are some rice fields which we don't weed at all. We practice deep water management which makes it harder for weeds to grow, but by using sensor technology to strictly control the water depth, we are trying a new method that doesn’t involve weeding at all. In other rice fields, we use the Nakano method of weeding, which is labour intensive and foregoes the use of machinery that uses fossil fuels. This weeding is carried out for one month after rice planting.
In addition, wild ducks fly in from everywhere, build nests near the rice fields, and eat the weeds with their ducklings. I don't practice duck farming because it’s cruel. When you farm ducks to intentionally place them in rice fields you have to set up electric fences to prevent them from being attacked by other animals. Once they grow large though, they eat the rice as well, so they need to be taken out of the rice field and killed. And as I mentioned earlier, we are trying to make the water deeper than other rice fields, which seems to be comfortable for the ducks to come in naturally. And since we don’t use any pesticides, there are a lot of living creatures and insects, creating an environment that ducks like.
6. You hold regular events at the brewery throughout the year. Why did you start them and what impact have they had?
We hold a lot of events to connect with all kinds of people and share our ideas with them in the hope that they become fans. Events are important for us, but what triggered us to start was the earthquake in 2011 which tarnished anything grown in Fukushima Prefecture. Organic produce from Fukushima was considered unsafe so we started to meet and talk about it at events to explain to people how it is safe. Looking back, customers and business partners we met at those events helped us to promote the brewery commercially. This was only possible because of the disaster.
“Wooden vats are part of traditional Japanese culture but they are disappearing, and it fills me with pride if I can help preserve any part of it.”
7. You’ve been replacing your steel tanks with cedar ones. How does that fit with your philosophy?
We can’t make metal tanks, but we can make our own wooden vats which suits our self-sufficiency goals. They’re made from cedar trees planted by my grandfather. After cutting down and replanting trees, my grandchildren will be able to use them for new wooden vats. After decades or even centuries, when the vats have rotted away, they’ll return to the land. It’s a cycle. Wooden vats create a unique taste in sake because there are living microorganisms in them. That’s appealing to us. Wooden vats are part of traditional Japanese culture but they are disappearing, and it fills me with pride if I can help preserve any part of it. The disadvantage is that they are still more expensive to make than metal tanks. Also, the wooden vats have to be maintained regularly. They are fastened with a loop made of woven bamboo, which splits after a few years and this needs to be replaced. The technique of weaving the bamboo also needs to be handed down to future generations. The bamboo we use for our vats is from this village.
FAVOURITE SAKE
Hyaku Nen Kijoshu 2020 (Brewed in 2019)
Launched in 2011 on the brewery’s 300-year anniversary, this is made with a portion of the previous year's kijoshu (fortified sake) instead of water. The bottle design marks the relay for this one-hundred-year project which will be handed down to the next generations. The inspiration for the project came from how Japanese ‘tare’ dipping sauce is topped up over generations, linking the past with the future—it’s made from scratch just once. Each year, the previous year’s sake batch is added to the new batch.
This is velvety smooth and richly sweet with spices like clove and cinnamon, a touch of cedar, gingerbread biscuit and a clean finish.
Rice type: N/A
Polished to: 80%
Yeast: Natural
ABV: 16%
Grade: Kijoshu
