“In the practice of several of the useful and ingenious arts they had made astonishing proficiency, and in the manufacture of sake, a strong and wholesome beer procured by fermentation from rice, they were not excelled by any other t people. It still appears to be the beverage in general to use. Koempfer met with it in all the inns at which he stopped on his journey to the metropolis; and although no person whatever is exempt from brewing it, yet there are numbers in the empire who follow no other business than that of making sake.
The town of Muru, in the province of Bisen, is inhabited chiefly by the brewers of this liquor; and at a village near the city of Osacca, it is made to perfection, and in such abundance, that it is sent from thence all over the kingdom, and even exported to other countries by the Dutch and Chinese”, AN ESSAY ON THE INVENTIONS AND CUSTOMS OF BOTH ANCIENTS AND MODERNS IN THE USE OP INEBRIATING LIQUORS, By Samuel Morewood, 1824
Boat carrying sake barrels, Japanese print of Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1848)
