JET Connection / JET explores the way of sake
Hiroko Ihara / Daily Yomiuri Staff Writer
This is the fifth installment in a series that profiles some former participants in the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Programme who have maintained their connections with Japan.
OSAKA--Philip Harper is one of the more unusual past participants of the JET Programme. It is safe to say that of the program's 46,000 participants since its inauguration, only one has had his career described by a Japanese journalist as "a miracle in the conservative sake world."
Harper, 41, is the nation's only foreign toji (sake brewing master). That's not so much a miracle, but more the result of years of demanding, accident-prone work at breweries, he humbly explains.
Harper's expertise and the quality of his sake are acclaimed by industry people and specialists. He has also written an informative guide to sake in which he expresses the unchanging enthusiasm and pleasure he gets from exploring "the way of sake."
His book has even impressed capricious consumers like this writer.
In The Book of Sake: A Connoisseur's Guide (Kodansha International, 96 pp., 25 dollars), Harper provides basic information on how to brew the national drink, eval!uate various brands and combine sake and food. He combines his explanations with witty, enlightening views. Many color photos enhance the descriptions.
The book also includes sake varieties that have not been covered by previous English books on sake, such as jukuseishu (aged sake) and other lesser-known types, which he thinks are tasty and deserve more attention. He also explains how sake flavors and tastes differ depending on regions and types of rice--the main ingredient--another aspect rarely covered by English guides.
The guide goes even further, though, describing all kinds of aspects of sake culture, knowledge of which he believes will help English-speaking consumers better enjoy sake--from a Japanese lesson in sake terms to information on sake cups, brand names and even songs brewers sing at work.
According to National Tax Agency data, sake exports have increased by 37 percent over the last five years. The United States has been the top export destination since 2001, accounting for 33 percent of all sake exports in 2006.
Harper's current workplace, the Daimon Brewery in Katano, Osaka Prefecture, has been selling its sake in the United States for several years now in collaboration with a local U.S. liquor import!er.
But long before he fell in love with sake, Harper was an Oxford graduate looking to live and work abroad for a while. With little more intention than that, he applied for the JET Programme and came to Japan in August 1988, when the program was in its infancy. At the time, he didn't even have a particular interest in Japan, let alone sake.
He says he thoroughly enjoyed the program because it was such a good introduction to seeing the real Japan and it provided him with an environment in which he could get to know a variety of Japanese people.
"It [the program] has had enormous influence on Japanese schoolchildren and international relations," he said. "When I was on the program, most schools didn't have foreign teachers. But now, even a small town has a person on the program living in the community every year. I think it has become a normal part of life."
But if he started as a JET on little more than a whim, the experiences he enjoyed during his time on the program greatly influenced his future path.
While he was teaching at primary to high schools in Osaka, one of his Japanese colleagues and a friend of the colleague frequently took him out to drink sake. The colleague's friend, Toshiaki Yokomichi, is now an award-winning sake brewing master at a brewery in Ishikawa Prefecture.
"I had friends who had a bad influence on me," said Harper jokingly. "The thing that really opened my eyes first was a very fragrant ginjo style of sake. It was a surprise to get such fruity smells from rice that obviously doesn't have scent."
He began working in 1990 at Ume no Yado, a small brewery in Nara Prefecture, as a part-time worker in charge of rice polishing and other chores. Although the physical labor involved was exhausting, he chose to work full-time the following year.
Recalling this period, Harper says that he enormously enjoyed working for a team of veteran brewers there led by acclaimed sake brewing master Tetsuo Ishihara and wanted to become a trusted member of the team.
When Ishihara died last year, Harper opened a bottle of Ishihara's sake he had set aside and toasted his memory.
In the intervening years, much had changed. In 2001, after working in various stages of the brewing process, Harper qualified as a master brewer by passing a brewer's union examination. He had also moved to the Daimon Brewery after 10 years at Ume no Yado. Harper moved at the invitation of Yokomichi, who was the brewing master there at the time, and went on to take over Yokomichi's role as brewing master in 2005.
"Some of the things I was making were a continuation of the past and a few were new products," he said. "Last year was the first year I'd been totally in charge from beginning to end. It's a new experience, so there were things I was not happy with. I looked at the results of what I got and took instant moves toward making things better for the following year."
He nevertheless says that sake brewed with good ingredients is still good even if it isn't exactly what he wants.
When it comes to making really good sake, though, the microorganisms used are very import!ant. Koji, the mold at the heart of sake brewing, is a key ingredient. It produces various enzymes as it grows on rice that has been steamed. It breaks down the rice starch to make fermentable sugars, which in turn are converted into alcohol by yeast.
As the two chemical actions occur simultaneously in what is called multiple parallel fermentation, he writes: "Sake brewing is akin to walking a tightrope: The two elements must be perfectly balanced."
It turns out that the rice also presents its own difficulties in the brewing process since it differs each year depending on the weather and other factors.
"Sake brewers appear to be doing the same thing every year but, in fact, they are always dealing with a lot of different factors to try to get to the same place they want to be each year," Harper said.
Compared with wine, though, sake can be a more convenient item to have on the dinner table. In his book, Harper gives examples of how it goes well with non-Japanese dishes.
"Some wrong combinations of wine and food cause gruesome fights, so people in the wine industry are much more careful about it, but sake offers more freedom. This is one of the reasons why sake is still enjoyed," he said.
According to Harper, sake is doing well in the United States due to the popularity of Japanese cuisine. It will become even more popular, he says, because more and more people are recognizing sake's subtleties, which will lead them to drink more varieties.
Prices of exported sake are quite high due to delivery and other costs, but Harper says it is still very affordable for people who might pay 100 dollars for a bottle of wine.
Human skills and expertise are very import!ant for brewing quality sake and serving it to consumers in the right condition.
Master brewer Ishihara often told Harper that the secret of successful brewing was harmonious coordination among the brewers.
"It's an axiom in the industry that sake made in a brewery where people have been quarreling tastes out of balance," Harper writes. "It's not a question of philosophy."
After absorbing himself in the actual brewing process of sake for several years, he later noticed that producing sake is only one import!ant chapter in a long story.
When he went out drinking, he often found sake was not served in its best condition because it had not been served or stored at the right temperature.
"Also, when talking to customers, I realized a lot of products needed a few words of explanation to help them be enjoyed more," he said. "As a brewer, one can make good sake, but it still requires conscientious handlers and people to explain the sake's attraction to the final customers."
It's not surprising, then, to find that Harper refers to owners of restaurants, pubs, retailers and wholesalers not as clients, customers or contacts, but as his "allies."
(May. 12, 2007)