Sake Brewery's Appeal: "Don't Stop the Festivities For Us"

My name is Kuji Kōsuke. I am the fifth generation brewer of "Nanbu Bijin" ("Southern Beauty") Sake, from Ninohe City in Iwate Prefecture.

Iwate Prefecture was severely damaged in the recent North-Eastern Japanese Earthquake.  My brewery was also badly damaged; a chimney fell down, and an old part of the brewery was destroyed.  However we are trying to rebuild as fast as we can.

We are of course extremely grateful for your donations.  We also received great amounts of supplies. We are truly grateful.

With the situation here in Tohoku region, it’s not really the time to be drinking sake.  But if things are left at that, we’ll be badly damaged a second time, this time by the economic side-effects of the tsunami.

Sake improves well-being and soothes the soul, and we would like call on everyone in Japan to support us by continuing to buy and drink our sake.  In fact, we would be far more grateful if you held hanami (spring festival) parties like you do every year, instead of cancelling them out of a sense of propriety [as some government authorities have done].

Japanese sake sooths the soul, makes food more delicious and gives us all a feeling of luxury. Please continue to buy and drink Japanese sake.  We make our sake from nothing but rice, water and kōji (rice malt), we believe it has the ability to bring spirit and energy to the people in Japan.  We urge you to take the energy you gain from drinking our sake and use it to help the devastated areas in any way you can.

We sake brewers of Iwate urge all Japanese people, especially those in the metropolitan areas, to help us continue our ancient art of making sake. Let us continuously improve upon it, and not let it die.  Help us grow strong again so that we can in turn help rebuild our coastal regions.  Please support us by buying, drinking, and continuing to appreciate our sake.

Thank you.