Mastering the Modern
Classics

Despair, then determination

That day, an unimaginably large tremor struck our sake brewery, made from Oya tuff stone, which lay just a few dozen meters from the sea. Three devastating shocks created large cracks in the stone brewery. The stone wall crumbled, and a tsunami swept in. This destructive damage was wrought by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. It plunged me into the depths of despair. My precious family and employees also suffered mental anguish. “Should I quit now, or keeping going?” Forced to make a major decision, I thought, “Both choices would be hard. So if both are going to be hard, I want to brew that ideal sake I had always wanted to make from the bottom of my heart. If I can’t, then I’ll close the brewery.” So my decision ended up being to carry on. Thinking about it now, this was the start of the daily process of mastering these Modern Classics.

For those who supported me

It was a major decision to rebuild, and there were many days when I felt I would never be able to create the sort of sake I wanted. At times, I got my sake assessed by specialists. Their reviews were harsh, but they also gave advice because they knew how I was struggling to create my ideal sake. Their frank views were a major asset. It was a continued series of trials and errors as I groped in the dark, without a glimmer of light, towards creating my sake. But each time I felt despair threaten to overwhelm me, I kept thinking about the lesson, “Take care of your family” Those words roused me, making me feel that I must never give up, for it was my family who were supporting me, and for the employees who were trying so hard! As I continued to research and test steadily, day after day, I slowly, gradually started to solve the question of making sake. Light shone down, illuminating where I should be heading.
How “Morishima” Came to Be / The aim: a sake that would set a new standard for our brewery

Becoming aware of the beauty of Japan around me,
and then to the Modern Classics

During the many days when I was taking a fresh look right from the start at my own sake-brewing, a shocking realization awaited me. There is a place called Izura not too far from the city of Hitachi in Ibaraki Prefecture, where I was born and raised. There, Hishida Shunso, Kimura Buzan, and Yokoyama Taikan, famous Japanese-style painters had learned from the thinker Okakura Tenshin, and pursued their own paths in art, creating original works. One of our brewery’s brands, “Fuji Taikan,” came about because of this connection with Yokoyama Taikan and his love of sake. Perhaps thanks this connection to the land, my father loved Japanese art and crafts, and I was brought up surrounded by Japanese painting and pottery. But I had no idea that there was value in them.

However, as I pursued my sake, as I worried, as I failed again and again, I saw the new possibilities in traditional methods of brewing sake, that all these individual points about me were finally connected in a line!

The true nature of Japanese beauty is “wabi-sabi” or transience and impermanence; “the richness of not being”; “the beauty of the empty space”. This was the “ideal sake” I was aiming for! The sake brewing I was pursuing was found in the beauty of Japan. That was the moment I realized that sensibilities that I had developed completely naturally were actually the root of my sake-making. What I was desperately groping for had been, surprisingly, right by me this whole time.

As one sake brewer living in the 21st century, I am heir to a classic history of Japanese sake stretching back two millennia. And within that, I must discover the new, modern possibilities. That means the expression of the beauty and aesthetics of Japan through sake, and the ultimate mastery of that is, for me, the Modern Classic sake. This thought took shape within me.

With thanks in my heart, I continue to push forward every day

“Morishima” was born using a stone fragment from the brewery destroyed in the earthquake as a symbol of our unbending spirit. The stone we have tossed into our customers’ hearts has created great ripples that have found their way back to us. That moment when someone says “Morishima is so good!” a ripple of joy and reliefs spread through my heart. This is a special sensation, one where my feeling that my decision, made in the midst of despair, was the correct one. The feelings that I got this far, thanks to the family that supported me, and the work of the employees who overcame this hard road in step all the way, are all mixed up together.

I was then able to make sake while thinking about my customers. The existence of my customers gave me added motivation to make sake. That was a new landscape I could see purely because they had accepted my sake. And now, having come back from the brink, there is something I have realized. It was those incremental changes each day that were the only method I could have used to get close to my ideal sake. To that end, I shall continue to refine my Modern Classic and create an even more delicious “Morishima”. That is my mission, and my promise to you all.

I shall continue to keep thanks in my heart to my customers, my family, and my employees, and keep moving forwards every day, even if that is only by a tenth of a millimeter.