The Seductions of Sake

A visit to Hokusetsu Brewery on Japan's Sado Island in pursuit of the perfect sip.

A display at Hokusetsu Brewery of their award-winning sakes.

TFP, we're pleased to say, is still visiting family in Japan. Here's one from the TFP Archives, from a previous—and delicious—visit to Japan's Sado Island.

By Michael Judge

SADO ISLAND, Japan — When opening a third or fourth bottle of wine at a dinner party I like to remind my guests that Jesus' first miracle was, mercifully, turning water into wine. Indeed, wine, religion and myth have been intertwined since the ancients first discovered the mind- and soul-altering properties of fermented anything. The Greeks had Dionysus; Gilgamesh had Siduri, "the woman of the vine, the maker of wine" to remind him of the fleeting pleasures of being human.

But it is the Japanese myth of the origin of sake, or rice wine, that I find most fascinating. According to the creation myths of the Kojiki, Japan's eighth-century "record of ancient matters," sake was first brewed by Susanowa, the brother of the sun goddess Amaterasu. In order to save Kus…