Kuchikamizake
Kuchikamizake ( Japanese 口 噛 み 酒 , in German about " sake chewed in the mouth ") is a rice- based alcoholic drink in which saliva is used to saccharify the starch.
history
The history of kuchikamizake begins about two to three thousand years ago and goes back to the natives of northern Japan, the Ainu of Hokkaido , in Japan , while the production of mouthsake was adopted from Chinese culture on Okinawa and Amami . Similar beverages are produced all over the world.
Individual historical references to the creation process can be found in the Edo period . The method of saccharifying starch with the help of human saliva for the production of alcoholic beverages can be documented as early as the Jōmon period , where millet, buckwheat , chestnuts and acorns were used at that time , as the rice was brought to Japan from China much later and was cultivated. The first use was among other things as medicine .
In South America , the indigenous people made chicha (corn beer) or masato (made from manioc ) in this way . In Mexico , agave wine is also produced in this way , while in China millet is used to make millet brandy ( Xia omi jiu ).
Kuchikamizake was also called bijinshu , in German for "beautiful women sake". This goes back to a practice described in Man'yōshū from the 8th century that young women chewed rice to make rice. On some islands in Okinawa, such as Ishigaki , kuchikamizake was still made in this way as part of religious rituals until the 1930s.
Manufacturing
Kuchikamizake is made by chewing boiled rice and adding saliva . The resulting liquid is then spit into a container and put away for a few days. The amylases in the saliva start a fermentation process, which converts the carbohydrates in the rice to glucose , which in turn is split by yeast in the air and alcohol is produced.
The Kimoto and Mizumoto sake are made in a similar way. While by the Kimoto rice bacterial fermentation in the air, one uses for the Mizumoto water and then adding a bacterial culture. This makes the fermentation process of Mizumoto most similar to that of Kuchikamizake.
Appearance and taste
Kuchikamizake has an opaque , whitish color and usually has a rather sour taste. Due to its thick and pasty consistency , also described as pulpy , the Kuchikamizake is poorly suited for drinking. Instead, it is also eaten out of the bowl with chopsticks or diluted with water and drunk.
Surname
口 kuchi is the Japanese word for mouth , kami comes from the verb 噛 む kamu "to chew" and zake is an assimilated form of 酒 sake . As a synonym, the Kuchikamizake is also called Kuchikami no Sake .
In popular culture
In the anime film Your Name. - Yesterday, Today and Forever from 2016 shows how the female protagonist Mitsuha and her little sister make the Kuchikamizake as part of a religious ritual. In the later course of the plot, this is sacrificed to the gods ( kami ) in a shrine far away . Taki , the male protagonist, drinks the sake in order to be able to swap bodies with Mitsuha one last time. In the German version the sake is called "Göttermund-Sake" . This could be due to the fact that the sake is promised a divine property, or it could be a translation error , as the name component “kami” ( 噛 み ) is pronounced exactly like 神kami (“god”).
In First Human Giatrus , a type of kuchikamizake is made using the saliva of a monkey . This is accordingly also called Saruzake ( サ ル 酒 , "Affensake") in the manga .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Jessica Thompson: Vice : Why Sake Used to Be Made with the Spit of Japanese Virgins
- ↑ Magical-Trip.com : The History of KUCHIKAMIZAKE in the movie 「KIMINONAWA。」
- ↑ a b Noritaki Kanzaki: Kikkoman Corporation : Sake Japanese Food Culture (No. 2) - The Development of "Clear" Sake
- ↑ Bostonsake.com : Brewing (and chewing) the origins of sake.
- ↑ 中 村 綾 : 石垣島 の 泡 盛 文化 . (No longer available online.) In: 2011 年度 南山 大学 人文 学部 人類 文化 学科 フ ィ ー ル ド ワ ー ク ク 文化 人類学 人類学 Ⅰ Ⅰ1 ・ Ⅱ2 調査 報告 書 . Nanzan University , p. 47 , archived from the original on November 1, 2016 ; Retrieved June 12, 2018 (Japanese). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b Aliza Kellerman: Vinepair : Sake Used To Be Made With The Saliva Of Virgins
- ↑ a b George Koutsakis: Forbes : Beyond Whiskey And Beer: The 3 Strangest Drinks From Asia
- ^ Sake Kontor Berlin : Sake history
