sobo-shu– tag –

In 1425, a document kept at Kitano Shrine in Kyoto recorded 342 sake businesses inside and around the capital. By then, that number marks how far sake had travelled. It was no longer mainly a courtly ritual drink, but rather a commodity,...

The history of sake stretches back roughly two thousand years, at least if you use the word broadly for Japanese alcoholic drinks made from rice. Yet the earliest rice-based drinks were nothing like modern nihonshu. The sake people pour ...