Today the descendants of the Mitsui family continue to brew sake although they have lost the title of the "largest private economic empire in the world". Sake is the main alcoholic Japanese drink. It is made from rice wine and is usually drunk warmed, though a few rare sake are traditionally drunk chilled. Sake barrels were first made for the Imperial Court.

Nowadays, would you believe that sake is brewed in the U.S.A. In a competition in 1982 amongst all the states in America, Berkeley, California was chosen by Takara Shuzo Company of Kyoto as the home of its new brewery. California rice is as tasty as top quality Japanese rice and one fifth the price! Water from the melted snow of the Sierra Nevada is abundant and is used in the brewing process. Three thousand 5 kilo (11 pound) liters of sake were brewed in 1990 (50% of US consumption). The Takara Sake USA factory usually welcomes visitors to their traditionally designed sake tasting room where guests are shown video slides, displays and given free samples to taste.

Although nowadays a few types of rare sake are drunk chilled, cold sake is something of a new fad. A sweetened sake called mirin is used for cooking.

Drinking sake while contemplating, nature's beauty is a traditional past time in Japanese culture.

Questions

• What is sake?
• What is the traditional relationship between the brewing of sake and rice cultivation in Japan?
• According to this article, how has the traditional relationship changed?
• Based on what you have learned about Japanese society and culture, propose a theory which accounts for the traditional class order -which put the samurai at the top and the merchants at the bottom of the class structure.