Andy and Jim climb the mountains and explore the rice fields to get to the root of the “king” of sake rice, Yamadanishiki. We look at where it came from, why it got so big, and maybe express a wee bit of skepticism about those magical Hyogo rice fields.

Vocabulary from this episode:

Koji Haze - The distribution of koji over the surface of the rice grains.

Kumamoto Kobo - The origin of Association Yeast #9, often called the “Ginjo yeast.”

Nengo - The naming of eras in Japan based on the currently reigning emperor. Now, for example, we are in the Reiwa era, preceded by Heisei, and Showa before that. 

Nishiki - Silk brocade. A word often used to denote something elegant and luxurious.

Shinpakuritsu - The rate of starchy “white heart” appearance in a batch of rice, expressed as a percentage.

Shuzokotekimai - The more official term for what we call sakamai, or rice well-suited to sake brewing.

Tankanwataribune - One of Yamadanishiki’s direct parents. “Tankan” means short stalk.

Yamadaho - Another of Yamadanishiki’s direct parents. 

Toku A chiku - One of a few areas across two cities in northern Hyogo prefecture with reputations for growing high-grade Yamadanishiki rice. They are: Kato City - Yashiro, Tojo; Miki city - Yokawa

Recommended Sake:

Andy - Kikumasamune Gokujo Tokubetsu Honjozo Chotokusen

Jim - Tatsuriki Junmai Dragon Episode 3 

Our theme music is from Lotus Lane by The Loyalist - Preconceived Notions Available at https://soundcloud.com/preconceived-notions

Used under a  Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0

Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/lotus-lane

Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/1YVHRMVwwHg