Kenbishi Shuzo, Kobe (Japan)

Mr Masataka Shirakasi, stirring the fermenting rice (moromi) Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture (Japan)
We know that water counts a lot in the style and quality of sake, and here in the sake region of Nada near Kobe, the water quality and minerality is very different from the ones found in the rest of Japan. Nada is like Fushimi a highly regarded sake region, and also one of the biggest, but precisely because of the water, the sake amateurs will either be hooked up to the sake of Fushimi or at the opposite to the sake of Kobe, because the sake expression is so different between these two places that you're obliged to prefer one of them.

Kobe is the second port of japan, and it sits very close to the beautiful Rokko mountain range that you can see from the train (picture on left) and from which the water tables feed off. Starting from Kyoto to reach Mikage near Kobe where the brewery is located, you first take a Hikari Shinkansen to Osaka, then change for a slower Hankyu-line train to Okamoto, passing Kobe in the way, and change again for one stop to Mikage, which is located maybe 5 or 7 kilometers east of Kobe. In Kobe, through which we drove on our way back, you don't see any trace of the big Kobe earthquake of 1995, and the huge Hanshin expressway of which whole sections collapsed has been built anew (picture on right).
The Kenbishi sake brewery is active since 1505, making it the 3rd oldest brewery in Japan. The iconic kanji sign of Kenbishi has been in use since the origin of the brewery, here in Kobe. This is in this regard the oldest brand of sake, the two other having changed their name since they were founded. The simple and elegant logo on the bottles displays both the symbols of man (above) and woman (below) in it, to represent the harmony between their forces. The brewery changed hands 90 years ago, and the Shirakashi family took the reins then. Our host for this visit, Mr Masataka Shirakasi is the heir of this family. The brewery has been sitting in this area of Nada since 50 years.

Kurabito workers in a vatroom We had our appointment at the brewery, thanks again to our friend Ayumi who also came along. A serie of circumstances and acquaintances of hers had opened the way for this rare visit (no visits, usually, at Kenbishi). We had taken a taxi from the Mikage station, another nice experience with a white-gloves wearing driver, but we found later that he left us at the wrong location (pic on left), and this for a reason : Kenbishi has 4 facilities split in the area, all rebuilt after the 1995 earthquake, and this one was just not the one we were to visit. So an employee came with his car and brought us to the facility (picture on right). We started the visit with the vice president of the brewery and heir of the family owning the company : Shirakashi-san walked us in person through the different sakemaking areas of the facility.
First, after speaking about the origin of the brewery, he says that the rice for the sake comes from the other side of the forested Rokko mountains ovelooking the bay. The rice is from the Yamada Nishiki variety, which is like Iwai rice a top-quality rice with a shinpaku (white inner core) perfectly fit for good fermentation. Like wine grapes, he says, the rice quality depends here also from the soil properties; this variety shows its best in this area, where it originated from. The best category, rated AA, can be found on the other side of these mountains. The Sugimada at Kenbishi Asked about the total sake output at Kenbishi, our host makes a pause to convert from the Japanese shaku unit to metric, and he says then that they make annually 70 000 hectoliters.
The brewery has contracted growers in 23 different villages behind the mountain range to provide the rice supply. There's another rice variety they use, it's called Ayama, it's a variety which Shirakasi-san's grandfather discovered was good for sake making, and it also grows on the other side of the Rokko mountain. These rice types are 1,5 more expensive than regular sake rice, but they offer a better quality in the fermentation features. Kenbishi uses one fifth of all the Yamada Nishiki rice produced in the region, that's also why they need to have contracts with growers to secure their supply chain.
Kenbishi is along with Oseki the only brewery that has a say on the quality control regarding the rice that the growers sells to them. The norm elsewhere is that this control is enforced by the the powerful Japanese Sake Association. I didn't think to ask why this allowance was so rare and why Kenbishi enjoys it.
We were particularly impressed by the artful work behind the Sugimada, this big ball made usually with cedar trimmed-leaves or branches. You will find them at the door of every sake brewery, but this one, with above, the long rope extended across the facility door, was a beauty of its own kind. the color of the bowl changes as it dries, beginning with a fresh green in autumn, it gets lightly brown during the winer, carrying a visual message saying that the new sake has matured and that it's time to drink it. I agree with that... The steaming section After putting a head cover and if I remember, special shoes, we began our walk into the brewery. We began with the steaming machines where a few kurabito were working. The dressing corner of the Kurabito (brewery workers) that I pictured on the right shows that many workers were away, having probably already finished their eary-morning shift. Here, the steaming uses both the modern machinery with pipes and conveyor belts, and the tradition with these round wooden steam pots which are encased on a steel base before receiving the rice batches for the steaming.
Like for other top breweries, the water supply is also central for the quality of the sake, as water comes at different stages, first at the washing stage, where the rice is immersed in water and takes in some on the way, then in the steaming phase and lastly in the fermentation vats, where water will be added to steamed rice, moromi and the yeast culture (which also has some water component). Kenbishi relies on no less than 13 wells for its water supply. They make their choice for the water after lab analysis of the water, selecting every year the ones which will offer the desired minerality. Kobe water has always been famous among the seafarers because its water was the best to stock for long journeys as it didn't spoil. Trucks like the one on the left (pictured along of one of the Kenbishi facilities) carry big volumes of water to the 4 facilities so that the sake bears the same characteristics. Sakemaking follows the same rules with the same water, and there is no difference between the productions of the 4 facilities, if there were any, smiles Shirakashi-san, it would be upon the kurabito workers' responsability.... Preparing a steamer unit The many kurabito staff work here from october to april, as this brewery follows the traditional seasonal production rhythm and closes the rest of the year. Most workers work as fishermen in summer, Kobe being a port. During their 6-month stay at the brewery, the workers live literally there, as there are indoor accomodations in each brewery, in the last story of the buildings. As the morning shift begins at 3am, lodging at the brewery makes life easier. Typically, they work from 3am to 6am, then rest until 8am, work again between 8am to 11am, and again from 2pm to 3:30pm, after which they have dinner. An interesting detail, adds Shirakashi-san, is that during the dinner they can drink sake as they want.... I'm suddenly tempted to learn more about sakemaking at the source and ask for a training, for academic purposes, of course... The work is intense for the kurabito as during these 6 months they get 2 days off per month only. But at the end of the sake season they get 20 days of full-pay vacations, much more than other Japanese workers (who get 10 days per year).
Religious thoughts are not let aside, and a small shrine above on the wall (picture on left) overlooks the main room of the brewery, generating good spirits and vibes.
The brewery may look very recent to you, but Shirakashi-san says that before the earthquake of 1995, all their facilities were wooden buildings. As everything was destroyed or severely damaged, they rebuilt concrete buildings as in the urgency it was faster than using wood. The reconstruction took them 6 months..
On this picture you can see how this steaming system works (from what I understand) : The steam comes from beneath this large opening, onto which a metal base will be fixed, adding lastly the traditional wooden open vat in the bottom of which a hole lets the steam pass through the rice. The mechanized system allows I guess to pump the right type of steam in terms of heat and humidity, while still keeping the benefit from the inertia of the wood for a softer action on the rice. The huge wooden steaming vat While B. gets explanations from Shirakashi-san, I shoot a picture of this huge steaming basket lying on its side near the steaming line. This is the type of open basket which is positioned atop the sophisticated steamer, just that this one looks bigger than the one I saw in place, being probably the one used for large volumes of rice at a time. Few sake brewery still use this type of wooden vats to steam the rice, they use metal steam boilers. Here, they use a system design which allows the old-time wood steam-basket to play a role. It is made with Japanese-cedar wood. Such vats have a life span of about 15 years, after which you have to buy a new one. A large sheet will be put in place on its inside first, so that the rice doesn't attach to the wood, then the humid rice will be pumped in, a lid will cover the whole thing and the steaming will proceed. Also, before the rice is poured in, they begin to steam the wood basket with the sheet so that there's no risk of remaining bacteria in the wood that would impair with the rice condition. Two wooden rods prevent the wooden vat from loosing its shape.
Sake making is less linear than winemaking from what I understand, you don't find a continuous process from october to april. For example, just to get the enzymes working takes 40 days Shirakashi-san says, then fermentation takes 30 days, right now, our guide says, this is the fermentation season.
You can see also the rice-washing unit in the corner, I think that it's the equipment here on the picture on right. The Koji room On the side of the large wharehouse-like facility, there's a low wooden structure with a deep airlock room where kurabito change their shoes, then an other door opening on the large Koji room. From the outside, this structure looks like a cute little house designed just for the lucky mold, so at it pleases there. Again, this room is very precious and central for the future sake and usually only authorized personnel walks there, as the mold is sensitive to outside influence. It's all wooden panelled in here, with the long table in the middle and a mechanized system that can do things all along the surface, apparently move the rice so that the powdered mold gets in contact deeper in the rice layer. This koji table being maybe larger than usual, the workers would have had trouble reaching the middle of the table when they need to move the rice upside down.
Two kurabito were busy gently brushing the walls with water when we walked in.
Shirakasi-san says that they use a natural mold that they grow and keep at the brewery like it used to be done in the past. Nowadays, breweries go buy ready-made mold and don't bother with having to keep a live culture from year to year. The sort of raise and multiply the spores so that they always keep a supply line. The interest I guess is also to have really the same type of spores/mold so that you get a continuity between the sakes of different vintage. Maybe also if the mold is kept and multiplies in the brewery from year to year, it can have an easier connection with the ambient atmosphere of the brewery, and work better. Just an idea, not sure it works this way, I mean like natural yeasts in a winery who may be present in the walls and the vatroom. The rice trays As we were leaving the area of the Koji Muro (the secured room for Koji making), we saw these brewery workers who were praparing dozens of wooden crates for the next Koji session. These crates are smaller in size than in many sake breweries, because it allows them a more precise control on the rice condition. I guess that these small crates/trays had been cleaned spotless, dried and neat.
These wooden trays are for the 2nd day of the koji-making process : the mold has first been sprinkled on the rice spread over the long table. In the hot and humid atmosphere, it has developped quickly on the span of 24 hours, after which the rice is put manually on these trays, the trays being piled high along the walls of the koji room, and the rice will stay another 30 hours there, making a total of about 55 hours in the Koji Muro. By allowing some air to pass between the trays, or by bringing the lower trays to the top, the kurabito staff can modulate the temperature precisely so that the koji cultures gets an almost individual attention, which is not possible when on the long table. At the top of a tray stack, the temperature can be as high as 45 ° C (because the closer you get from the ceiling, the hotter it gets), that's why moving the trays up and down is important. If I'm right, the last tray at the top has a wooden lid. I guess that they can take out the trays one by one when they feel they're ready for the next step, which is cooling and being mixed with yeast, water and steamed rice. Again, I may have missed something but that's the way I understand the process.
Speaking of ventilation, if the Koji room itself is too hot for some reason, they can bring the temperature down by opening manually the small trapdoors in the ceiling (picture on right), which the most traditional way you can think of to cool down this room. They found the design of this room in 150-year old documents, including the trapdoors.
One of the reasons also why only certain workers can go inside this room is that it takes particular physical capabilities to be able to endure 30 ° C and 90 % humidity for a long stretch of time. This high temperature comes only from the rice being transformed by the mold, here they don't use outside temperature control to heat the room like it is common in other breweries. As it can go by itsel to 50 ° C, they can counter-act by opening the trapdoors in the ceiling. 10 kurabito work inside the koji muro when it's active, they need lots of staff to move the trays out. The press Here is the press, named Yabuta in Japanese, it is still the same, long shape and accordion design that you find in many places. If I understand well, it's not just a press, bur there's compressed air which is blown into the hanging-files-like things to push the liquid out. This type of press is the mainstay of modern breweries today, the two other press types or methods being the Fune which we witnessed when we visited the Himonoya brewery in Nihonmatsu, Fukushima, and also the fukurozuri which we never saw but seems a very very ancient way of dripping the sake from the rice : you just hang the bags full of moromi and recover drop by drop the liquid that flows from them. That's what I'd call free-run juice vinification if we were dealing with grapes and wine, the best juice you can think of in terms of quality. Here's a short video of this method. You get very small volumes of sake this way of course, don't expect to drink this every day... Elephant feet in a brewery The first glance makes you think you landed among an elephant herd who came here to sip greedily all the sake they could siphon. These are feet, but sort of the feet of the vats that are kept I guess this way at the right temperature. This is not a ceiling over our head, but the floor built at mid-height so that workers can work atop the vats and check how the fermentation is faring.
Note again how neat and clean this place is, not that I see a problem in a messy vat room, but we're in Japan, and in a country where the sidewalks are so clean that you could almost eat off the floor, breweries and vatroms make no exception. Fermentation vats Here is the head of the elephants, these green vats have no wood cover yet, and there's a long stick in each of thm to stir the rice regularly. From what B. and Ayumi translate to me, Shirakasi-san says that at Kenbishi they don't buy the yeast like it is done usually, the yeasts are in the atmosphere of the brewery and do their job without needing additional help. also about the lactic acid, they don't add like it's done commonly elsewhere, they rely on the naturally-occuring lactic acid present in the brewery ambiance, using the old traditional method known under the name of Kimoto
I think that this preparation of the rice to get transformed by the natural yeasts takes place in these stainless-steel tanks on the picture below, if I understood well : these tanks are filled with steamed rice with koji and stirred for a very long time until something happens. The temperature is controlled by either immersing cold steel containers or hot wood boxes. The wheeled scaffolding platform helps the kurabito move from tank to tank and gives them the proper height to handle the wooden sticks.
Watch the fermenting rice in this short video of mine. Yeast preparation tanks
Read this extract from John Gauntner's sake-world about the kimoto method :

Beyond the standard method (sokujo moto) and the yamahai-shikomi method discussed last month, there are a few other ways of creating this moto, which is also known as the shubo (written, by the way, with the characters for sake and mother).
One such method is known as kimoto. As mentioned in the previous newsletter, until about 1920, all sake was made by mixing rice, koji, and water to a puree in order to help the yeast cells reproduce faster. This puree-creating mixing was exhausting work, albeit the quintessential sake-brewing image for drawings of old. Then, it was discovered that the hard work of mixing by pole could be skipped, and replaced with more water, time and vigilance in watching the moto closely. This new method came to be known as yamahai shikomi. Soon thereafter, it was discovered that a bit of lactic acid added first made it all even easier. (Please refer to the last two newsletters, archived on the sake-world.com site, for more detail.)
Kimoto, then, is the old method. Indeed, even today, brewers creating sake made using a kimoto yeast starter will stand around a small tub and mix, mix, mix in a rhythmical, robotic action to mash up the rice, koji and yeast to a paste-like consistency. Monotonous and tiring work to be sure, but aren't all traditional methods?
This activity, by the way, helps speed up the natural production of lactic acid in the moto. Lactic acid will then protect the developing moto from stray bacteria that would contribute to strange flavors or even spoil the sake.
Kimoto shubo takes a bit longer than yamahai to create, but ironically, the sake that results from these two methods is similar in flavor profile. Like sake brewed with yamahai moto, sake brewed with a kimoto moto has a higher sweetness and acidity, with richer, deeper, significantly more pronounced flavors. Bitterness in the recesses is not uncommon. As with all sake brewing methods, though, the moto used is only one factor.

You understand by reading this that kimoto is the closest you can get from natural-wine making, producing sake without lab additives and apparently resulting in sakes which are very alive and aromatic... there are very very few sake breweries relying on the ambient yeasts to make their sake, and as you can check on this page about natural yeasts by John Gauntner, that Kenbishi is among them.
The age-old brewery logo on the left is said to represent either the sun with the moon or the harmony brought by the togetherness of male and female energies. Fermentation vats with lids Back atop the fermentation vats :
We then walked to another fermentation room where the vats are covered with two-part wooden lids. Underneath, the rice is gently fermenting and a kurabito can grab a stick and stirr the white mass. Our host showed us how to do it. The stirring stick is made in a such way that you can by a swift movement bring the rice of the bottom back to the surface. It allows the temperature to be evenly distributed from top to bottom and avoid disprecencies to build up (see Shirakashi-san doing the job on the picture on top). By separating lightly the two parts of the lid, you can do that without bringing in lots of oxygen, that's a wise lid design. Each of us were given the chance to try our skills at moving this stirring stick, and that's not so easy : the stick tends to try to go up horizontally by its own, maybe because it's made of bamboo with pockets of air inside, and the very important thing is to keep the stick vertical, so that by a swift movement upward you bring the deep part of the liquid rice at the surface. But on the whole, we weren't that bad. Again, i want a trainee position here...
The fermentation cycle lasts 30 days. When it begins, like on the picture above with lid-less vats, there's no foam or activity visible on the rice, then after a few days, things are moving fast, and they put a motorized switcher (twin-blade propeller-like tool) to keep the foam under control.
Depending of the type of sake they make, they may increase the alcohol by 1% or 2% by adding their own shochu alcohol (distilled rice alcohol), following thus a 200-year-old method, this is the main distinction between the junmai sake and the other sake. The law allows up to 50 % of alcohol adding, which makes sake cheaper to produce, but here at Kenbashi they stick to a modest 1% to 2% alcohol enhancement.
This type of old-style work require a lot of kurabito, and as asked about the number of workers at Kenbishi, Shirakashi-san told us there were 100 people working in the 4 breweries altogether. Tasting the Kenbishi sake We then went to a room in the side of the brewery to taste a few of Kenbishi sake.
This tasting allowed us to experience a very different style of sake compared to the ones I had tasted until now, and it highlights the unique particularities of the Nada sake region, which is rooted in the mineral nature of its water, as opposed for example to the neutral style of the water in Kyoto. The other factor behind these tasting features maybe the natural-sakemaking method used at Kenbishi, the kimoto, which seems to be known for yielding more intense sake than the method using lab yeasts.

__ Kenbishi Sake Nouveau. First, we're poured a sake that has just been pressed, a wholly-new, unpasteurized sake, something you can't find in the retail, you have to be here when sake is being made to have the opportunity to drink this. This is just outstanding, intense, with at the same time a beautiful viscosity on the palate, unusual. A bit tickling on the tongue, and a nice length too Aromas of apples maybe. 20 ° in alcohol. Unique sake, beautiful. They should try to bottle some of this for a handful of good restaurant of the area, it would have a terrific success, for sure.
__ Kenbishi basic sake. Made partly with Kobe rice (Ayama & Yamada Nishiki), partly with rice from other regions. Tastes wet stone. Roasted aroma too, says B. About 16 ° in alcohol. Pasteurized twice. Blend with 1 year to 3-year-old sake. 1900 Yen (17 € or 23 USD for 1,8-liter bottle).
__ Kuromatsu sake. 100 % Kobe rice, Ayama and Yamada Nishiki varieties. Intense feel in the mouth, very enjoyable mouthfeel. Also 1 to 3 year blend. Very gourmand, chewy, B. says. 2200 Yen (20 € or 26 USD for 1,8-liter bottle).
__ The green bottle in the middle. Again a sake with a beautiful, intense mouthfeel, and this from the start and on a much longer time. Speaking of the temperature to pour the sake, our host says that he likes the sake to be warmed at 40 ° C, not higher like it's often done in Japan. We're tasting the sake at room temperature here and I prefer it this way, by large. This is a 1-3-year blend, made from the two Kobe rice varieties. To make the final choice for the blend, several people taste many vats at many times, there's a "blend Toji" who does much of the tasting work but at the end, it's the president of the brewery who decides. The choice has to be made among the vats of the 4 Kenbishi breweries, with sake 1 to 3 years old. They make micro-blends in glassware to simulate the possible blends, like we do for wine.
I must say tha there's a nice quality of intoxication (I find the French word ivresse more gentle) in these sake, you really feel well without second thoughts. 3000 Yen (27 € or 36 USD for 1,8-liter bottle)
__ Kenbishi Mitsuho. The small bottle. A junmai made with a blend of 2-year to 7-year old sake. The minerality in the mouth is particularly strking, with a honeyish aroma too. Our host says that it pairs well with chocolate, sheep cheese, blue cheeze and Gordonzola as well as oysters. 1500 Yen (13,7 € or 18 USD for a regular, smaller bottle)
__ Kenbishi Zuisho. 7-year to 15-year-old sake blend. These sake are stored at relatively high temperatures, like 20 ° C, and they still fare well. Aromas on the flowery side, maybe like hawthorn. Very enjoyable mouth, refined and intense at the same time. Gliding feel of the sake on the palate is just outstanding. B., who has a talent for food pairing, says that it would be very beautiful with duck. Comes with a price, 5000 Yen (45 € or 60 USD a 1,8-liter bottle).
From what Shirakashi-san says, I understand that the high minerality found in the water tables of the Nada region helps the koji develop more aromas. Kenbishi is exported to the United States, South-Korea, Switzerland and possibly soon, France.
Thank you to Mr Masataka Shirakasi for his time and his welcome.

Kenbishi Shozo Co. Ltd. 12-5, Mikage Hon-machi 3-chome Higashi Nada-ku 658-0046 Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture phone +81 78 811 0131 fax +81 78 811 0357 Satellite location/map The Kenbishi brewery is not open to the public

Commuters between Osaka and Kobe (Hankyu line)