By Bruce Rutledge

Sake is mostly brewed in winter by farmers and fishermen who need the work during the offseason. The work force is led by a brewer, or toji, who often belongs to a guild or a group. These groups used to be secretive about their brewing techniques, but today they share trade secrets in the quest to brew better sake. While this sharing of secrets blurs the distinctions between these groups, some distinctions still exist.

The most well-known groups are the Nanbu toji from Iwate Prefecture, a region hit hard by the recent earthquake and tsunami, Echigo toji from Niigata along Japan's western coast, and the Tajima toji from Hyogo Prefecture in central Japan.

The Echigo toji are known for brewing sake with a clean, dry taste that comes in part from using water that has plenty of snowmelt running into it. Nanbu is known for a straightforward taste with a bigger mouthfeel. The Tajima group delivers a subtler, mellow sake that goes with its warmer climate.

However, just to complicate matters further, brewmasters often travel to different regions to practice their craft. You wouldn't have to look too hard to find a Nanbu practitioner, for example, far from Iwate brewing sake in a southern prefecture.
"The brewmaster is often in his prime at 65-70 years old," says Toshi Kojima of SakeStory. "That's how long it takes to harmoniously balance the variables of koji (steamed rice with mold spores) handed down for centuries, water and terroir."
Kiyoaki Kojima of SakeStory adds: "On a trip we took to visit some sake breweries, all of the toji had futons next to the vats. Foreign observers who see these breweries always note the toji's dedication to the craft.”

It’s that dedication that brings all the other elements — rice, water, koji, technique — together to create the very best sake.

Hiroko Yokosawa of Tsukinowa (Moon Ring) brewery in Tohoku is one of the very few female sake brewmasters in Japan. Though she has been studying sake for more than a decade, she is one of the youngest brewmasters too. (Photo by Kenji Nachi)	Many sake brewmasters hit their peaks in their 50s or 60s. They often sleep in the brewery, very close to the vats, during the most sensitive times in the brewing process.

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