Rice field stories

The Motai Kasugamu Kaizori area in central Nagano Prefecture offers fabulous views of Mt Asama and Mt Tateshina, as well as an expanse of countless rice fields. Morihisa Ito’s farming family have been growing rice here for generations. He was told he would take over from his father as soon as he left agricultural high school, and dutifully followed that path. Mori-chan, as he's affectionately known, appears far younger than he actually is and his long years have gifted him with remarkable tolerance. The story of how he met Susumu Osawa, 13th generation owner of Osawa Sake Brewery, is very simple - Susumu simply fell in love with his rice fields, felt compelled to make sake from them, and so approached Morihisa to ask him if they could work together.
Susumu always says stories are vital for rice farming, just as they are for sake brewing. He grows a table rice variety called Nagano Homare (Pride of Nagano), and has many stories about it, including how the seedlings are transplanted into the fields by hand. Morihisa also has tales to tell. He talks about how if he plants sparsely the individual stalks grow straight and strong and never fall over – not even when the typhoons come. And over time, others who were interested in this rice and in hand-transplanting seedlings gathered around to listen and to help him.
The sake made with this Nagano Homare rice is called Shinano no Kataribe, storyteller of Shinano, another name for Nagano. Those who gravitated to it formed the Kataribe-no-Kai, or meeting of storytellers, which serves as a networking event across different industries, and whenever a new batch of the sake is brewed the members stop by to taste it. The natural pull of the sake, the rice fields and Morihisa’s charm draw people in. And people continued to gather. Teachers and students from institutions such as Daito Bunka University, Nagano University, Waseda University and Hosei University came to experience the process of transplanting seedlings, harvesting and drying as part of their university experience.
All of this came to an end during the pandemic when gathering in groups was forbidden, and many of the teachers who once came have now retired. Morihisa no longer had enough people to transplant his seedlings by hand and regretfully settled for planting them by machine.

Alternative school Mud-o-lympics

Morihisa looks after the rice fields where the raw material for Shinano no Kataribe is grown, and also others where students from alternative schools can come to learn about agriculture. Alternative schools provide a place to be and to learn for elementary, middle and high school students who cannot attend normal schools for whatever reason. The Japanese government accepted the importance of alternative schools after the Law on Securing Opportunities for Education Equivalent to Formal Compulsory Education went into force in 2018. The state encouraged closer cooperation between elementary and middle schools, and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology focused on having alternative schools not only help students return to normal schools but also contribute to them becoming independent members of their communities.
Morihisa didn't wait for the law to change – he has been working with the alternative school Free Space Cosmos in Mitaka, Tokyo and building relationships with children from other alternative schools for around 25 years. When he comes face to face with the children he transforms the empty flooded rice field into a theme park, where they run around having fun competing in mud-o-lympic games like tug-of-war and dodgeball. The children have the time of their lives and experience transplanting rice seedlings, finishing their perfect day with a stay at the local community center. The center was eventually too small to manage, so after retiring from teaching Morihisa’s wife Kimiko founded the “Mori-chan Hope Village Agriculture House”. It was even more pleasant to stay there than at the community center, as there were baths and kitchens so the students could prepare their own food.

The alternative school teachers and Morihisa see many parallels between growing rice and the growth of the students, and often compare notes. When to add something to stimulate growth and how strongly, how to deal with changing conditions, how to draw out full potential – there seemed to be no end to the similarities. Morihisa remarks that farmers like him rarely get to talk to teachers, but since starting Hope Village he can now talk to them from their point of view.Some students came to experience rice farming with him for 7 years in a row, some returned to school or got jobs after graduating from the alternative school, and a few even became teachers themselves. Morihisa is delighted – who could be a better teacher than someone who stopped going to school, overcame their problems and went into teaching? And it may be due in no small part to the husband and wife team of Morihisa and Kimiko, and the wonderful space they created.

Brewing brothers at the Osawa Sake Brewery

Motaishuku is a rest stop on the old Nakasendo trail, once used by travelers to cross Japan's main island from Kyoto to Tokyo by foot. Located on the boundary between present-day Saku City and Tateshina in northern Saku, it still boasts its original beautiful white walls. Osawa Sake Brewery was founded in 1689, and today is run by 14th generation owner Makoto Osawa, with younger brother Minoru overseeing operations as the master brewer. The brewery grounds are also home to the Osawa Sake Brewery Community Resource Center, Shinano Forestry Museum and Village Administration Calligraphy Center, which showcase the area's cultural heritage and brewery's history.
Of particular note are old white porcelain Imari ware containers from the time the brewery was founded, which contained the oldest known sake in Japan. The sake was opened and used for analysis in 1969, when it had been stored for 280 years, but such a discovery could only be made at a brewery with a history as long as Osawa's.

The brewery's main label is Meikyo Shishui, an ancient saying that describes something serene like a polished mirror or still water, signifying a light heart and mind free of any evil intent. It’s a classic high-quality sake, smooth in the mouth with crisp flavors and a short finish, and attracted attention from the moment it was launched in 1989. Their other popular label is Seki, named for the brothers’ great-grandmother who carried the brewery through the tumultuous transition between the Meiji and Showa eras. Made from Kinmon Nishiki sake rice grown in Kijimadaira, Nagano, the sake is aged for at least 2 years before being released for sale. Mellow, smooth and sublimely graceful, it draws you in with its complex aroma and flavor.
They also make the Shinano no Kataribe sake from rice grown by Morihisa. They first used the table rice Nagano Homare, but the stickiness of table rice always makes it difficult to grow koji. So, they switched to the sake rice variety Hitogokochi over a period of about 5 years, and after Minoru became master brewer he experimented further until he could confidently make a sake he was proud of. Although the sake is a junmai it has many features of a ginjo – highly aromatic with crisp acidity and full, rounded flavor. It’s a sake you never get tired of, perfect for long nights of telling tales. The rice seedlings were once carried into the fields by the many hands of those who gathered around him, Morihisa sadly notes that the pandemic has meant the loss of such opportunities to come together. But as Morihisa's dedication shows, there's little doubt that the next generation will carry on where the story of Shinano no Kataribe left off, and that new tales are just waiting to be spun.

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