Photo: Hakiiken Daiginjo Junmai Nama

When I opened the package from Brian for July SakeSwap, hadn’t ever seen sake in such a nice bottle. I uttered “Oh My God!!!”. Then I immediately tweeted Hekiiken with a picture of this very summery beautiful blue bottle.

Hekiiken is brewed by Masuichi-Ichimura Sake Brewery in Obuse, Nagano. I may have tasted some of their sake at Nagano sake tasting events, but I got really excited about trying something totally new!

Although I was new to their sake, I’ve always wanted to visit their brewery because of their marketing initiatives both in Japanese and English and for their leadership in promoting traditions.

Masuichi’s director, Sarah Cummings, has frequent coverage in the media for her contributions both for her work at the brewery and for her outstanding work to promote her home town, Obuse.

I am sure this is one of her marketing initiatives, but Masuichi’s web site has so much information in English, the kind of information to make readers want to jump on the train and go visit the brewery, eat at the Kurabu, then stay at the exclusive inn, Masuichi Kyakuden. Also, the site introducing the town, Obuse Bunka, touches on many perspectives travelers from out of town enjoy reading .

Masuichi has been a leader in the initiative to preserve and revive old traditional wooden oke or barrels for brewing sake. Before the modern enameled vats, oke-jikomi was the norm. Now the Society for the Preservation of Wooden Barrel Brewing has 19 breweries across Japan who has revived the sake tradition.

Thanks, Brian. This bottle was just that little push we needed to plan a trip to Obuse. So, I hope you’ll see my blog about Nagano sometime soon!

If you are wondering where the name of this sake came from, Hekiiken served as Hokusai’s atelier as well as his place of residence while he stayed in Obuse. Off course, Hekiiken is also added to my list to visit while we are there. Masuichi-Ichimura Sake Brewery’s Web site in English: http://www.masuichi.com/english/masuichi-tsu/index.htm Don’t miss their kurabito section!