Guide Map Minamiuonuma & Uonuma Yuki-nagare Tamagawa 290 Irihirose Snow Drifts Ooshirakawa Shuzo Kamijyo 352 252 Echigosuhara 252 291 Uonuma Echigohirose City Kitahorinouchi Horinouchi Echigo Koide Midorikawa Saifukuji horinouchi Shuzo Temple Kaisando Koide Shiori Pass 252 Yairo Agricore Waterfall Clouds 291 Echigo Winery Lake 291 Okutadami 酒 語 Urasa Yamato smart IC 352 Fukouji Temple 17 & Bishamondo Yairo no Mori Park Itsukamachi Bokushi Uonuma Hakkaisan kyuryo り Street Brewing Snow Country Muikamachi Aoki Zenibuchi Park Shuzo Muikamachi Minamiuonuma Sake Tales Shiozawa Untoan City Temple 28 Oosawa Takachiyo Sake Brewery Shiozawaishiuchi Shuzo Tourist Spot Ishiuchi Oze Joetsu Shinkansen National Park 291 JR Line Hokuhoku Line Kan-etsu Expressway Produced by Niigata Pref. Minamiuonuma City Industry Promotion Department Commerce & Tourism Division. 180-1 Muikamachi, Minamiuonuma 949-6696 Snow Country Sake Tales Tel : 025-773-6665 e Japanese Rice Wines of Minamiuonuma & Uonuma Publisher Takizawa Design Co. e Japanese Rice Wines of Minamiuonuma City Resort Tourist Association For inquiries : Imaizumi Memorial Hall 855 Shimohitoichi, Minamiuonuma, Niigata 949-6363 MINAMI UONUMA Tel：025-783-3377 URL：http://www.m-uonuma.jp/ Printed March 2021 This booklet was produced as part of the Reiwa 2 Fiscal Year Countryside Revitalization Subsidy Project UONUMA (a widespread tourism initiative employing government oversight and historical resources from the Chuetsu Culture & Tourism Support Organization) 酒語 Table of Contents Rice & Grapes 4 Minamiuonuma City & Uonuma City Water Climate 6 Origins of Snow Country Sake Brewing Sake 8 Spring Water for Brewing り Snow History 10 Rice and Grapes People 12 “SAKE - TION” Short Movie 14 Takachiyo Shuzo 16 Hakkaisan 18 Aoki Shuzo Snow Country 20 Echigo Winery 22 Midorikawa Shuzo SakeWhat Tales Exists 24 Tamagawa Shuzo 26 Select Gems Behind the Sake 28 Guide Map Local sake, local beer, I wonder when these terms first came to be used. Was it because true craft alcohols had died out? Or that people were no longer satisfied with the mass-produced products of major manufacturers? Or else what could it have been… Echoes of this term “local.” With it images of the bucolic natural scenery, the smell of the earth, the appearance of brewers involved in these painstaking, handmade crafts… I think this is what people found so enticing. We believe here that Japanese sake is something which owes its existence to the natural features and people of its environment. From this perspective, we view the act of drinking sake as a chance to catch a glimpse of the culture and nature of the land where the sake had originated. When drinking the sakes of this region dubbed “Snow Country,” we would also like people to experience the nature, culture, and brewers’ philosophies that exist together behind each product. 南魚沼市 魚沼市 MinamiSouth Uonuma City UonumaNorth City Snow Resorts Historic Bokushi Street Taki-gumo (Waterfall Clouds) Lake Okutadami There are 10 snow resorts set up in town which offer a A beautiful neighborhood featuring traditional Snow Breathtaking scenery where clouds flow over One of Japan’s largest lakes formed by a dam, plethora of courses that can be enjoyed by visitors of all Country architecture that is perfect for pictures and mountains as if they were a waterfall of clouds. The considered to have some of the best fall foliage in the skill levels. leisurely strolls. chances of seeing this natural phenomenon are highest entire country. in autumn. Despite its proximity to the Tokyo area, Minamiuonuma City in southern Niigata Beginning with the immense Echigo Komagatake of the Echigo Sanzan Mountains, Prefecture bears a distinct local culture that has been shaped by the region’s prolific snow. Uonuma City is blessed with an abundant natural landscape and plenty of snow. As of one With more than 4 meters of snowfall accumulating in a typical winter season, local trades, of Japan’s prominent heavy snowfall regions coated in upwards of 3 meters of snow every regional cuisines, and long-standing traditions have all been influenced by an innate respect winter, a mineral-rich mountain spring water from this snow nourishes the city’s basin for this snow. e city’s flourishing agricultural industry, best known as the birthplace of landscape, famous for the premium Uonuma Koshihikari rice, Japanese sakes, and wild Japan’s popular Koshihikari rice, owes its success to the land’s extraordinarily fertile growing mountain vegetables among other specialty produce. e local environment enables visitors conditions. to encounter rare natural phenomena of Taki-gumo (waterfall clouds) and Yuki-nagare, e wisdom of past generations has been handed down as the snow is utilized in a wide impressive springtime snowdrifts. In addition to the JR Joetsu Line, there is the Tadami array of other trades today. Traditional Japanese sake-brewing techniques perfectly suited to Scenic Railway which traverses this magnificent natural landscape. ere is also a wealth of the local climate continue to be advanced. UNESCO Cultural Heritage Echigo Jofu hemp art produced by the engraver dubbed the “Michelangelo of Japan” Ishikawa Uncho fabrics are also woven and refined in the snow here each winter. e area is also home to scattered throughout the city. numerous snow resorts, making Minamiuonuma a prominent snow sport destination not only for enthusiasts within Japan, but also with people around the globe! VOIDE : Discover the Stories of Minamiuonuma Pure Uonuma VOIDE is a new form of audio tour sightseeing media that A new YouTube channel with lots of introduces the hidden stories waiting to be discovered in tourism information “pure uonuma” is Minamiuonuma. Many of the appeals specific to this Japanese available. Please check out these Snow Country such as unique local cuisines, picturesque natural landscapes, traditional local videos through the QR code here. trades, and other historic & cultural artifacts are shared with the world through expert-narrated stories, photo galleries, short movies and more! 4 5 A fresh coat of snow over Mt. Hakkai. There is a breathtaking degree of beauty to the sight of this peak’s sheer ridgeline Origins of covered in a pristine layer of pure white snow. Snow Country Sake Brewing SnowWhy has sake brewing in Minamiuonuma & Uonuma been so prosperous? All of this success can be traced back to the region’s identity as Snow Country. The Muikamachi Central Shopping District of the early Showa period. Without the snow-blowers and machines there are today, snow would pile up to the rooves of Within the brisk atmosphere in early houses and people would carry winter, preparations for brewing out their lives walking above this continue forward. The Uonuma Basin’s harsh winter climate is an integral snow. component of local sake brewing. “e train came out of the long tunnel into the snow country. e earth lay white under e long-term cold fermentation the night sky.” is is the famous opening line from Nobel Prize-winning author Yasunari performed in winter in this region is said to Kawabata’s Snow Country, which perfectly captures the image of the snowy be the origin of the especially smooth and Minamiuonuma and Uonuma region. In winter more than three meters of snow piles up, refreshing taste characteristic of Niigata sake. covering the entire landscape in a layer of pure white snow for four months each year. Moreover, in recent years natural snow has e long, frigid winter of Snow Country is a harsh period for the people who live been accumulated in winter and preserved to here, but it is also the advent of the perfect climate for sake brewing. e steady humidity be used in long-term “snow cellar aging” Inside a Yukimuro snow cellar. Snow and low temperatures the snow brings are ideal conditions for the microorganisms like steps that have been adopted here. accumulated in the winter is kept year-round in special storage rooms and used to preserve koji and yeast that are crucial for brewing, while it limits the proliferation of harmful Let’s raise our glasses while learning more sake products. Through snow storage, the sake is kept at the perfect temperature and bacteria and the snow intercepts any impurities or dust that may be floating through the about the Snow Country on the other side of humidity for aging, resulting in a crisp sake air. e wintertime brewing of sake using snow has been called the “Echigo Style” in these sake bottles. with great depth of flavor too. other regions outside of here as well. 6 7 Raiden-sama Spring Water. Long ago there were Spring Water incidents of people falling victim to lightning strikes in this village. It is said that locals near this mountain spring enshrined Raiden-sama, the god of thunder & for Brewing lightning, and through their praise these tragedies all but disappeared. Water plays a deciding factor in the taste of a sake. VOIDE WaterI wonder what secrets lie within the mountain spring water that flows throughout Minamiuonuma & Uonuma. When the snow piled atop Mt. Makihata and Mt. Hakkai melts, it flows into the Uono River and other waterways or is filtered underground and becomes spring water. This melted snow has been utilized in farming and Mt. Makihata Waterfalls. There are countless everyday life here for centuries. waterfalls and streams on Mt. Makihata, and there are stories involving the dragon king Naga to explain the steepness and precarious positioning of many. The fresh water springs all over Minamiuonuma & Uonuma along with their folklore have been preserved and fondly remembered since long ago. e flavor of Japanese sake is determined by water, rice, and lastly the skill of the brewing with soft water was very difficult, brewer. It is said that in sake making the amount of water necessary is around 30-40 times and risks of failure were always present.