Rice Shochu that Protects A Clear Stream: Beautiful Scenery

“I wanted to protect this mountain stream,” says Kazunobu Torikai, 13th president of the shochu distillery known as Torikai Shuzo Co., Ltd. When he was a child, all the rivers and streams near here ran clear, and the outlines of fish could be seen at their bottoms. But when a dam was built downstream, the river changed immediately. When the river was separated from the ocean, there was a sort of stagnation; the river slowed, began to flow sluggishly and became turbid. Furthermore, the mountains that had been destroyed by the large machines of the forestry industry and then neglected were ravaged by landslides to the point where it was impossible to walk in the mountains. Just as Mr. Torikai was worrying about this disastrous situation, a plan was announced to build an industrial waste treatment plant near the upper reaches of the Souzu River. He had no choice but to obtain 150 hectares of mountain forest and began to restore and protect the surrounding environment.

The first step was to remove the rocks that had piled up so thickly as to obscure from sight the opposite bank of the stream, as well as the widely scattered remnants of the logging operation. The extensive recovery work included obtaining both knowledge about forestry, hydrology, geology and natural energy, as well as the cooperation of people involved in civil engineering, forestry, landscape architecture and agriculture. Having little knowledge of the management of mountain streams, Mr. Torikai took seven years to complete the work, all the while learning from the natural environment itself. During this time, Torikai found the remains of terraced rice paddies apparently cultivated by earlier generations, and felt something for this land, which led him to build a distillery and storage facility for Torikai Shuzo.

I learned of this place after seeing the distillery on the popular television program Potsun to Ikkenya [A House in The Middle of Nowhere]. The distillery facility standing alone in the middle of a remote mountainous area was a mystery, but what intrigued me even more was the sight of the shochu jars in the process of maturing, neatly lined up in an orderly fashion in a shallow, square reservoir with steps like terraced rice paddies. What on earth is this? I was glued to the scene. At the same time, I was impressed by the person who built this facility, the distinguished looking Kazunobu Torikai.

The Souzu River to whose surface Torikai points flows with wonderfully clear water. The stones on the riverbed glitter in the sunlight, refracted by the lens effect of the flow and swell of the water. He says that when he was a child, he was so enticed by water like this that he would dive into the river and swim. In the past, all the rivers in Japan were like this. His words expressing his desire to keep at least this mountain stream as it used to be are very humble, and the river before our eyes seemed as if it had always been this way, but today, it may require an extraordinary amount of dedication and ambition to preserve nature as it used to be.

Kazunobu Torikai has scholarly knowledge regarding the fermentation and distillation of liquor and the practical skills of an artisan in its production. At the age of 24, he was ordered by his eldest brother to quit his job in Tokyo and return to Hitoyoshi to work in the family brewery. The youngest of seven siblings, he recognized that the brewery work was too much for his aging parents and did his best to support them. Over time, alcoholic beverages, tastes, liquor taxes and markets have changed. And what Kazunobu Torikai cherishes above all is originality. The current version of the distillery’s product, Ginka Torikai, takes advantage of creative methods to eliminate the distinctive smell of shochu and retains a gorgeous aroma even after distillation, showing a unique sophistication among rice shochu products. In 1996, Torikai won the highest gold medal in the Monde Selection, along with Johnnie Walker.

Since the introduction of this shochu, and until a better product is created, this will remain the company’s only offering. In the laboratory, researchers are constantly going through processes of trial and error. They aim to create a thick, rich shochu that can withstand aging without the typical shochu smell, while raising the rice polishing ratio and using atmospheric distillation. Truth be told, Torikai would like to achieve a sweetness and density like rum. When I asked him why the distillery's earthen jars are immersed in water, he said that he feels something changes when he allows them to soak. This is not a matter of science, but of intuition. The water is a crystal clear stream that has been preserved by protecting the mountains. I guess this soaking in water is a reflection of the spirit of the manufacture of rice spirits and alcohols. The spirit of purification can certainly be keenly felt.

Located in the middle of Kyushu, the southwesternmost of Japan’s main islands, Hitoyoshi Kuma, a *Japan Heritage site, is a basin in the Kyushu Mountains that looks like the central thumbprint in the traditional Japanese flour-based manju sweet. The Sagara clan was dispatched to the area by order of the Shogunate at the beginning of the Kamakura period (1185-1333), and--under Sagara's rule for the 700 years--a culture based on peace and tranquility has been nurtured here. Buddhist statues dating from the Heian period (794-1185) through the Kamakura period have been preserved in Buddhist temples with Amitabha Buddha as their principal deity, and the "33 Kannon Tour," in which people visit the statues, all publicly exhibited during **the Buddhist holiday of Higan continues to this day. Aoi Aso Shrine, located in the center of Hitoyoshi, is a 1200 year-old national treasure. Although the area of Hitoyoshi Kuma still bears the scars of the flooding of the Kuma River caused by the heavy torrential rains in 2020, it is gradually coming back to life.

*Japan Heritage is a certification system established in 2005 by The Agency for Cultural Affairs to recognize as the nation’s heritage stories that express the culture and traditions of Japan through regional characteristics and historic attractions.

**Higan is a seven-day Buddhist holiday celebrated exclusively by Japanese sects beginning three days before and ending three days after both the Spring and Autumn equinoxes, shunbun and shubun, respectively.

2021.12.6