The Earliest Appearance in Documents

The Report of the Wa People in the History of Wei (the late of the 3rd century) tells the people in the Japanese islands already had enjoyed alcoholic drink, but there is no description what kind of ingredient the drink was made of.  Nihon-shoki (720) refers to the name of drink Yashiori-no-sake, which literally means “eight-times-brewed sake.”

Instability of Japanese sake

Sakaguchi (1964) points out that maturation has been not regarded as important in the culture of Japanese sake, as a distinguished character from other many cultures of alcoholic drinks. One of the reasons is that sake is not very conservable.  Although exceptionally from the 12th to 15th century matured sake was prized, the tradition of maturing has faded away except in a local custom of distilled liquor of Okinawa, the southern islands.

Sakaguchi explains the variable character of Japanese sake as followed: “If so great value is attached to old one like the cases of wine or whisky, nearly as a superstition, it functions as a norm to stem a novel alteration of quality. In contrast, Japanese sake is totally consumed in each year in principle, so accumulation of political and economic effects of years can result in unexpectedly much change in the quality”. ([1964]2007: 50)

Elavolation of Seishu as Pure Sake

Today, the color of sake (seishu) is almost transparent.  When has sake become so clear?  There are some historical processes.

In Harimanokuni-fudoki (8th century) there is an expression which means pure sake, but we have no information to assume how similar it was to sake today.  Since the century, production skills of sake had developed in Buddhist temples as the institutions exclusively entitled the right to brew.  It is historically noteworthy that the method of pasteurization was employed in the 14 century at the latest.

Morohaku, which has begun to be produced in the temples in Nara of the 16th century, was clearer than the previous sort of sake.  Morohaku means “both white.”  In the production process of sake, rice is used in two main phases.  Morohaku is the sake for which well-milled rice is spent  in both of the phases.  Morohaku in that period was clearer than ever, but far less than the present sake because mill technology was not developed enough.  It is not until the 19th century that adoption of  water wheels  introduced  a great innovation in rice milling.

Culture of Unfiltered Sake

While development of manufacturing seishu or pure sake, peasants produced unfiltered cloudy sake for their own consumption in the Edo period because domain governments often exempted it from taxation.  In general, Japanese sake is subject to more strict governmental regulation than other kinds of alcohol like fruit liquor, because it needs much consumption of rice as the staple crop of the Japanese life.   Moreover, in the Edo period, rice constituted the standard of prices, so it was so important for domains and the central government to control a quantity of sake production.  In this situation, a limited amount of unfiltered sake had been enjoyed among people as a decriminalized product until it was totally prohibited to make sake at home in the Meiji period.

Modern Competition for Transparency

The National Competition of Seishu, which began in 1907, introduced noticeable changes in the quality of sake through evoking intense competition between brewing companies across Japan. In the situation, clarity came to be regarded as the definitive criterion to judge the quality of sake.  In fact, to make sake clearer, it needs an immense amount of rice, almost wasted, and so costs much.  This tendency got so overheated that colored cups were adopted in the examination in order to make color of sake unrecognizable.  Sake became as clear as it is today, in this period.  In the one hand, the NCS brought uniformity into Japanese sake; but at the same time it contributed to build nationwide acknowledgement of many local brands, as generically named Jizake (local sake).

References
SAKAGUCHI Kinichiro, Japanese Sake. （坂口謹一郎『日本の酒』岩波書店、2007年、初版1964年）
YOSHIDA Hajime, Sake in Edo. （吉田元『江戸の酒』岩波書店、2016年、初版1997年）
IINO Ryoichi, The Birth of Japanese Style Bar Izakaya.（飯野亮一『居酒屋の誕生』筑摩書房、2014年）

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