OSAKI, Miyagi Prefecture--A sake maker whose brewery was devastated in the Great East Japan Earthquake will make one last bottling of his coveted drink before its buildings are razed.
OSAKI, Miyagi Prefecture--A sake maker whose brewery was devastated in the Great East Japan Earthquake will make one last bottling of his coveted drink before its buildings are razed.
The quake struck when 36-year-old Iwao Niizawa, who runs Niizawa Jozoten in Osaki, Miyagi Prefecture, and a team of six staff were in the final stages of brewing their prized Hakurakusei sake.
About 40,000 bottles of Hakurakusei and other brands were broken in the disaster and all five of the brewery's buildings, which date back to its opening in 1873, sustained structural damage that city officials say renders them unsafe.
Niizawa does not know whether he will be able to restart the business. It will require a large investment to relocate or rebuild on the current site.
"I once though about giving up," he admits.
But, before facing that forbidding future, Niizawa decided to make one more expression of Hakurakusei, a brand which has proved a smash hit with sake fans since its release in 2002.
"Since there was a good harvest of sake rice, I had high expectations for this year's product," he said.
Niizawa, a fifth-generation brewer, became the youngest brewer in Miyagi Prefecture in 2000 when he took over his family's business at the age of 25.
The brewery, which was saddled with 200 million yen ($2.47 million) in debt, could not afford to hire a more experienced brewer.
"We had no money left to hire someone from outside," he said.
The devastating temblor came as Niizawa was beginning to see years of hard work rewarded. Annual sales of Hakurakusei had reached 200 million yen. It was featured on an international airline's first-class sake list and at a Grammy Award party.
Fans in the trade helped pick him up after the quake. One establishment promised to keep Hakurakusei on their menu even if supplies dried up. Another described Hakurakusei as "the ultimate sake to be drunk with a meal."
Fellow brewers have chipped in, providing Niizawa with sake making equipment such as hoses and boots, to help him put out his brew, and, after talks with his employees in April, Niizawa decided to put out his final bottling from the current brewery.
"I want to go back to my original intention and deliver fresh tasting sake in summer," Niizawa said.