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“Journeys in Japan”
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Wooden vessels once plied this canal…
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carrying local specialties to Edo and other cities.
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Handa, in Aichi, is known for its fine sake, vinegar, miso, and shoyu.
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Jennifer Julien has come to savor this world…
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as part of her thirst for culinary knowledge.
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“Bonjour.” I’m a French from Bordeaux,
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and I work in the food and wine business.
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Today I’m in Handa, a town where I hear there is a fermented product
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that is a must-have with food,
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but also a lot of breweries.
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So I’m very excited to go around.
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The city also brews up fun with a dazzling float festival
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held only once every five years.
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On “Journeys in Japan,”
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Jennifer enjoys the festivities and rich food culture of Handa.
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Handa
Savoring a Canal City’s Delights
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Located on the Chita Peninsula,
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Handa is about 270 kilometers west of Tokyo.
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Chubu Centrair International Airport is just on the other side of the peninsula.
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So I’m on my way to Handa from the International Airport,
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and it takes only 15 minutes to go there by car.
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The city, with a population of over 100,000,
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is within commuting distance of Nagoya.
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Traces of times gone by can be discovered here
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in the “district of warehouses.”
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So this is the canal of Handa,
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and I think that these black buildings really give a super nice vibe to the area.
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And apparently, this is where they used to make vinegar.
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Handa’s history of brewing goes back 200 years.
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Thanks to the flourishing shipping industry,
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its products took off in major cities.
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So we’re at the back of those black buildings,
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and it feels really like being in a time-slip tunnel.
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In French, vinegar is “vinaigre.”
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It means sour wine,
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so there is a deep connection in between wine and vinegar.
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This place recreates our vinegar brewery from the Edo period.
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“Kasuzu” vinegar was produced here.
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Kasuzu is made from “sake kasu” or sake lees.
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Please come this way.
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Our company started as a sake brewery.
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In the brewing process, a huge amount of lees are left over.
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Our founder made vinegar from them. It was a new invention.
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First, sake kasu was aged in this big barrel to produce “umami” and sweetness.
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– This is three-year aged sake kasu.
– The color is incredible.
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– It’s an Edo period ship.
– What is it doing here?
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Kasuzu was transported by this kind of ship all the way to Edo, now Tokyo.
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It then encountered a certain food there.
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– What was it?
– Let me show you.
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This is “haya sushi,” the original form of “nigiri sushi.”
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Kasuzu was inexpensive and rich in umami.
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People found that sushi rice seasoned with kasuzu tasted better.
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That’s how it became popular.
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It’s no exaggeration to say that Handa created a sushi boom.
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“Bisyu-hayasushi” is based on a 19th-century recipe.
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The “nigiri” pieces are supersized compared to today’s.
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Why are they so large?
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So that you feel full by just eating one or two,
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not like today’s style of eating many small pieces.
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And the rice isn’t white.
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It’s because we use this vinegar, made from sake kasu.
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The dark color comes from its fermentation.
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Wow, this is… Well, the size is, first of all, very impressive.
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But also, indeed, it is salty.
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But I think that this special vinegar
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gives some kind of roundness, mildness to the sushi.
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So the first bites are pretty well-balanced.
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But maybe if I have too much, it will get saltier.
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– This is the sake kasu vinegar.
– Thank you.
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Yeah, it smells like round vinegar. Not too sharp.
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This is not like super-vinegary vinegar.
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It’s like round, mild vinegar.
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And I think this is fruity also.
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It makes me want to drink sake. Or even beer.
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Wow, this building makes me feel like I’m in Europe.
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This 19th-century structure was once a beer brewery.
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(Handa Red Brick Building)
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Hello, my name is Jennifer.
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Baba Nobuo is the leader of a citizens’ group that conserves the building.
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Please come this way.
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The permanent exhibition showcases the brewery’s history.
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This place was built in 1898.
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German brewing equipment was installed and professionals came over
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to start the production of authentic German beer, called Kabuto.
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Japan was at the dawn of beer brewing at that time.
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Why did beer brewing start in Handa?
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Sake brewers in Handa had an entrepreneurial spirit.
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Amid the declining popularity of sake,
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they wanted to try something new for the future. And, it was beer.
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Are the walls just as they were back then?
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– So well preserved.
– It’s incredible.
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Beer was stored in this space.
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The walls were designed to accommodate tanks efficiently.
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– What do you think made those holes?
– I have no idea.
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They’re bullet holes from US fighters during the war.
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One month before the war ended, Handa was air-raided.
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Those holes were made in the attack.
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The building had been used for storing military provisions during World War II.
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And with that, Handa’s beer brewing came to a halt.
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But in 2005, Baba and his group decided to change that.
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– Okay, cheers!
– “Prost!”
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Oh, my goodness. This is really like black beer with a very deep taste.
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But it doesn’t have so much bitterness.
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It has a pretty mild, deep and fruity taste.
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Is this flavor the same as the original?
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Yes. We faithfully re-created the beer using the original recipe.
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Some said we should give it a modern twist. But we refused.
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We wanted to pass on the value and appeal of this red brick building
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and its brewing history.
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We felt that we should simply recreate that old beer.
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– And it resulted in a great flavor.
– Wonderful.
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Kamezaki in northern Handa was once especially known for sake.
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That’s a big sake brewery.
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This brewery has a history of over 200 years.
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Ito Masaru is the 9th-generation master here.
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Sorry to interrupt you. What are you doing now?
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I’m doing prep work.
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I have blended the three main ingredients, rice, water, and “koji” mold,
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in the tank for fermentation.
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So milky. Once fermentation begins, we can see bubbles, right?
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Yes. You can see that over there.
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During the fermentation process, carbon dioxide and alcohol are produced.
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The bubbles are carbon dioxide. It is breathing.
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Oh my God, guys. It smells amazing.
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It smells already like sake, “nihonshu.”
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But it has kind of like a mild, round flavor, I think.
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The aroma makes me happy.
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– The sake is made with this water.
– Yes, from this well water.
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It tastes different from ordinary water. It has a pure taste.
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As Kamezaki was rich in groundwater like this, sake brewing flourished.
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There were once about 40 breweries. I’m the 9th-generation head.
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Until five years ago,
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Masaru was working for a major telecom company
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and had little background in the family trade.
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When he was in high school, his father let the business go.
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Then, two decades later,
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Masaru decided to revive the old brewery
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and resurrect his family’s sake flavors.
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– This is my sake.
– What an honor.
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Wow. It has a deep flavor.
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It’s very deep in flavor and “karakuchi.” It’s a dry sake.
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And I think it has a very pure taste.
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It’s pure. Really nice. Like…
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What made you decide to make sake?
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We have many old buildings, like this.
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I wanted to preserve them, but didn’t know how.
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These days converting traditional structures into cafes is popular.
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And I thought about doing that.
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But would the business exist in 30 or 50 years, even after I die? I wasn’t so sure.
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The buildings were created to be used as a sake brewery.
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I thought brewing sake was the best way to preserve this complex.
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So that made me consider making sake here again.
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For him, it’s not just about honing his sake skills,
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but also about using his brewery compound for cultural events
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that bring community together.
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This is such a nice view.
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Oh, what do we have here?
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I wonder what this building is? It has quite a unique shape.
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Ah, and there’s another one!
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“Saya” are garages for festival floats, called “dashi.”
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Every district of Handa has held its own spring festival for over 200 years.
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Residents pull towering floats
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carrying the guardian gods of the community throughout their area.
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And every five years, in autumn,
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the floats see the light again.
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The floats feature elaborate carvings,
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large embroidered curtains,
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and even mechanical dolls called “karakuri.”
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Dozens are pulled into the city center from all 10 districts
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for the Handa Dashi float festival.
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The floats from each district are now heading here.
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Today, all 31 one of them will come together.
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This happens only once every five years.
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Floats are paraded in one after another,
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their grandeur a symbol of the wealth from the old trade in sake and vinegar.
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I have never seen such a festival where there are so many different festival cars.
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It’s so big and really…
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You know, they’re all different in detail and,
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you know, the colors for some of them. They’re really beautiful.
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Look at all these festival cars.
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This is quite a sight. I’ve never seen so many at once.
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Unlike the spring float festival, this one is relatively new.
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This story goes back 44 years.
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We were part of a young entrepreneurs’ group.
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We wanted to bring together the 31 floats,
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as they were only seen in each district.
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We thought it would galvanize the city.
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Our proposal for the event met major opposition,
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given the sacred quality of the festival.
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But we patiently talked to all the parties and realized this event
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that represents the whole city.
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So, see? For example, this one has some dolls at the top.
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Floats showcase karakuri dolls and their distinctive performances.
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It’s so much fun. It’s a great chance for people in each district to get together.
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It’s exciting. Each district has its own festival culture,
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so we can learn from each other.
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And, like all good festivals, there are food stalls with local delicacies.
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Nice to see you again.
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– What are you doing here?
– We are promoting sake.
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You can taste from three Handa breweries.
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It’s fascinating. You can enjoy their differences.
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– Are you all good friends?
– We are.
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Do you often collaborate like this?
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Yes. We are confident about our local products.
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We want to expose them to many people.
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I’m from a brewery just down there. I was born and raised in Handa,
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so I also would like many people to know about our sake.
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The city of brewing’s two-day festival brought in over 500,000 people.
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I had a wonderful trip in Handa.
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The town’s brewing history is deep,
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and its traditions have been passed from generation to generation.
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I could also feel that the people are really protecting those traditions.
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I also feel very lucky that I could attend the festival
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that is held only once every five years.
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And it was quite a sight to see so many car festivals at the same time.
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I really do hope I can visit Handa again.
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To reach Handa from Tokyo,
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it takes one hour and 40 minutes
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by Shinkansen to Nagoya.
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From there, it’s about 35 minutes by local train.