Shiga · Jan 24, 2026

January 2026: Shiga Magic- Unraveling the threads

滋賀県

Shiga Magic: What the Heck is Going On Here?

Sunflower Sake Club, January 2026

Molly and I felt like featuring Shiga in January was a no-brainer. For both of us, I think 2025 brought a new appreciation for Shiga sake which really began with the arrival of Daijiro’s As Time Goes By in December ‘24 and has carried on with each new arrival since (Yasui, Uehara, Matsunotsukasa, Ota, Emishiki, Shichi Hon Yari, and so on). Our sake journeys followed different paths this year (for me: Okayama-Tottori-Shimane and Nagano; for Molly: Fukuoka, Saga and Fukushima) but we both converged on Shiga, which left us captivated over and over again.

There’s a bit of selective bias going on, for sure. We like smaller breweries making wild fermented, full-bodied sake with unique rice and fair pricing, and that’s a big part of Shiga’s style. I work extensively with the imports brought by Alex Bernardo in SF, and with some reluctance the imports of NY’s Zev Rovine Selections, curated by kyoto barkeep Yoram Ofer. These breweries came to my attention largely because of Alex and Yoram’s curatorial efforts. But even aside from that, Shiga is a hotbed of incredibly good sake. This month and next we’ll take a closer look at the who, what, where and why, hopefully finding some nuggets of truth underneath the cliche truisms of “good water” and “good rice”-- accurate though they may be.

Where

Every prefecture has unique geographical features, but only Shiga has Lake Biwa. Lake Biwa is ancient, over 4 million years old, and very large: it covers 250 square miles and carved a fertile basin out of the surrounding mountains. Biwa, meaning lute, formed through tectonic activity and the great outpouring of snowmelt from the Southern Japan Alps, migrated over millions of years from Mie to Shiga, and for ~400,000 years has been the central feature of this landlocked region’s geography. Migratory birds, some 50 endemic fish species, massive underground aquifers, water-moderated climate and fertile, flat basin land form the physical basis for Shiga’s cultural character.

Coastal Japanese culture tends to develop around sea fishing, trade, and rivers running down from nearby mountains. Mountainous inland Japan tends to develop around rivers and streams, preservation techniques and forest products, isolated in the snowy months of the year. But Shiga is central and close to sea level, a healthy mix of flat and mountainous topography, fed by 460 rivers but only one outbound river, the Seta, which becomes the Uji and Yodo rivers in its winding approach to Osaka Bay. The Shiga Canal, also an outlet, is not a natural waterway but was installed to facilitate trade with and supply drinking water to neighboring Kyoto. And the Sea of Japan coast, only 14 miles as the crow flies from the north tip of lake Biwa, granted access to all of the natural and human resources of Kyoto, Fukui and Ishikawa. This proximity to coastal towns played a key role in Shiga’s economic prosperity and cultural identity.

There were brief moments in time where Shiga’s might have become a capital, from the early Jomon period Otsu’s good weather and ample natural resources supported early human settlements, with shellmounds here dating to ~9300 BC. In the 6-700s several emperors established palaces here, and in 788 Enryaku-ji buddhist monastery was built, headquarters of the Tendai sect. Tendai warrior monks oversaw the capital of Kyoto on one side of the ridge and on the other, the vast expanse of Lake Biwa. A large number of temples and shrines were built around the lake in devotion to Yakushi Nyorai, the Buddha of the “Pure Land of Water,” particularly as the Tendai sect evolved into the Pure Land Sect. The warrior-monks’ political and military influence waned with the rise of Oda Nobunaga in the late 1500s. Japan’s first great unifier, as Shogun Nobunaga established Azuchi Castle in Shiga and granted special privileges to its residents, intending to make it a capital city. When Nobunaga was betrayed by his vassal however, the castle burned and those residents migrated south to Hachiman and Kusatsu, where the Nakasendo and Tokaido routes– busy foot highways between Tokyo and Kyoto– converged. In the Edo period that followed this era, Shiga’s agricultural and trade significance grew. Its hugely successful merchant community sent tendrils of influence up and down the Japanese archipelago, even into China, Korea, Europe, and the Americas– but that’s a question of who.

What: Environmental Preservation

Residents in Shiga, Kyoto, Osaka, and eastern Hyogo drink water originating from Lake Biwa. It is by far the most important water catchment in Kansai, supplying over 14 million people or one in 10 Japanese residents. But from the 1960’s to the early 2000’s, as Japan on the whole wrestled with the environmental effects of industrialization and urbanization, the Lake Biwa watershed suffered acutely.

For reasons we’ll discuss in the next section, Shiga’s population growth and industrial sector rose in the post-war years. The resulting stress on the region’s ecology grew over ~10 years from the late 1960’s, coming to a head in 1977 when a large-scale red tide was generated by the golden alga Uroglena Americana. For over 2 weeks, huge sections of lake water became opaque with exploded populations of red algae, killing massive populations of fish through the release of toxins, falling in oxygen saturation, and blocking light, which kills aquatic plants. During the tide drinking water was discolored and smelled of rot all throughout the Kansai water system. By 1978, women began to organize in protest against the apparent cause: nitrogen and phosophorous-containing synthetic detergents, which were newly popular for their cleaning power and use in modern washing machines. Eutrophication occurs when a body of water becomes overly enriched with minerals and nutrients which induce excessive growth of plants and algae. Aside from contaminating water, killing flora and fauna, and making the area smell of rotting fish, eutrophication has lasting effects on ecology, later enriching the soil and causing excess growth of plants, reducing available oxygen for fish.

Named the Sekken Undou, or Soap Movement, Shiga’s women gathered under the banner to promote a return to natural soaps made from fats. As red tide records were broken in 1978 and 1979, the movement gained national attention and local governments capitulated, banning the sale and use of synthetic detergents containing phosphorus and went further to regulate drainage for nitrogen and phosphorus on the whole. Even today, schoolchildren are taught about this history and assist in symbolic gestures to support the lake’s ecology, such as releasing vegetarian fish hatchlings to eat the excess of Lake Biwa’s aquatic plants.

I had no idea about any of this before chatting with Timo-san of Hata Shuzo on our drive to Omi-Hachiman station last Fall. I was asking about the culture of organic farming in Shiga and he explained that everyone is quite eco-conscious due to the lake, from special detergents at home to special guidelines around pesticide and fertilizer usage in the farm. It turns out that this is a huge piece of Shiga’s puzzling magic.

Who: Farmers

The freshwater fish, migratory duck and freshwater clams of Biwa are considered integral to Kyoto’s famous regional cuisine. But quietly, Shiga supplies a large percentage of Kansai’s rice and vegetables as well– a fact often avoided by Kyoto’s proud residents.

Compared to leading prefectures, Shiga produces a fairly small proportion of the nation’s rice, but 26% of the land is agricultural and 93% of that area is wet paddies, taking advantage of the natural wetland geography. Shiga rice is marketed as Omi-mai, in reference to the region’s historic name of Omi. Eating varieties include Koshihikari, which is popular nationwide, as well as local Kinuhikari, Akinouta, and Mizukagami (a heat-resistant local variety suited to reduced pesticide and fertilizer use). Sake varieties include national standards Yamada Nishiki and Gohyakumangoku as well as local specialties Tamazakae (best for moderately polished junmai and honjozo), Ginfubuki (developed for high polish/ ginjo), Wataribune (heirloom), Tankan Wataribune and Shiga Wataribune No. 6. and no. 2. Unique among Shiga brewers is the commitment to this local rice, and a big part of it might have to do with shared identity and struggles of Shiga people as well as the simple fact that most brewers are farmers, most friends of brewers are farmers, and you support your friends with your work. That’s just the right thing to do. (Shown above: the brewing team at Hata Shuzo working on their paddies in Spring).

Not one or two, but literally every brewery on my map (and others I don’t know about) is involved in some capacity with rice farming, growing some percentage of their own and buying the rest locally from friends. Y’all, this is highly unusual. I’ve talked at length on the history of rice farming in Japan, but for the last ~80 years rice farming and sake brewing have been considered completely distinct roles (you do yours, I do mine). It’s only in the last 20 years that post-war laws restricting corporations from owning farms were reversed, the amount of permissible land was increased, and the economics started to make sense. But Shiga is ahead of the curve, and I don’t know why but I do know that here is a hotbed of brewer-farmers not only growing their own rice but doing it sustainably, using local varieties, with minimal use of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers. 460 Rivers and creeks feed Lake Biwa, so agricultural runoff is a huge concern. In addition, the unique foodways of Shiga are intricately connected to the lake’s health and fisheries. Being in tune with farming, environmental protection, and regional culinary culture, are key to being a successful sake brewer here.Perhaps unsurprisingly, Shiga’s agro-environmental policy is one of the earliest and most advanced in Japan. It was the first prefecture to introduce environmentally-friendly agriculture subsidies as direct payments to farmers in 2004, inspiring a national rollout of similar policy in 2007. Today, Shiga farmers are paid ~80,000 yen/year per hectare (~$500; 40-120k yen scaling by degree of intervention) to farm in an environmentally- friendly manner, which allows them to earn a net income of (at least) 25,882 yen ($160) per hectare. The biggest added cost here is labor: an estimated 124 man-hours per naturally farmed hectare versus 21 hours for conventional farming. By directly subsidizing these costs, Shiga has invested in people and place (reduced interventions in human health and environmental remediation, increased soil fertility and land value) and ranked Shiga #1 in Japan for environmentally-friendly agriculture (EFA), 12 years running.

In 2006, Shiga did something totally unique: its government took action to protect the life cycle and ecosystems of the endemic crucian carp species nigorobuna, whose life cycle depends on access to flooded rice paddies or shallow wetlands.

Until the mid-1900s Shiga’s shoreline, particularly toward Otsu, was dotted with marshy wetlands and micro-islands planted (of course) to rice paddies. Multiple fish species had evolved to enter the paddies at various stages in their life cycle. Carp entered as baby fingerlings in Spring, eating tiny bugs and algaes in relative safety and fertilizing fields in the process before returning to the lake as young adults. Catfish enter the fields to spawn. But 1960-80 was a period of intense land consolidation and reclamation in Japan, and most of these marshlands were filled in with soil and converted to dry fields. In addition, invasive species introduced as game fish, namely bluegill and largemouth bass, have had a devastating effect on juvenile life expectancy outside of the safety of paddies. Nigorobuna’s population declined in response to these factors, reaching a historic low in the mid-90’s of <10% of pre-consolidation numbers.

Nigorobuna’s population decline might not have been noticed had it not been the core ingredient of Shiga’s most famous (infamous?) delicacy, funazushi. Funazushi is a type of narezushi, an ancient predecessor to sushi: sour, fermented dish of rice and raw fish that over time evolved into the vinegared rice and fresh raw fish we recognize today. Traditionally, nigorobuna were caught, gutted, stuffed and surrounded with salt and cooked rice in a wooden barrel seeded with natural lactobacillus bacteria. Over the course of a year, the flesh softens and changes as the flavor becomes complex, sour and cheesy. Narezushi was so important to the economy of Omi Province in the Heian period that according to official documents, the province paid its taxes to the emperor with funazushi and amenouzushi (Biwa salmon narezushi) in AD 937. And it remains important not only to modern culinary culture, but also as an offering in local Shinto practice.

In collaboration with local farmers, the issue was studied and identified and farmers in eligible watersheds were recruited, again through a direct payments system, to solve the problem through direct action: the Fish Cradle Rice Paddy project.

Among participants, pesticide and agrochemical use is limited to 50% or less than standard guidelines to protect fingerlings, and the ecosystem they rely on. Chemical herbicides are also limited to those that have no negative impacts on aquatic plants and animals. People work together to make fish passes (fish ladders) in the water channels by placing incremental panels to form a stair-like water passage to facilitate the upstream migration of lake fish. In addition, size limits on fish caught from passages, and water quality of field runoff, are strictly enforced. In 2017, participants covered an area of approximately 130 ha across 24 regions in 2017. Rice cultivated in these paddies is certified as "Fish Cradle Paddy Rice” and sold at a ~10% premium. While countless other environmental issues continue to press on this fragile ecosystem, nigorobuna catch recovered to 52 tons in 2016 after dropping to a nadir of 18 tons in 1997.

As of 2023, 69% of farmers in Shiga are farming some or all land according to EFA standards, 40% of rice paddies (by area) were cultivated under EFA, which is nearly 14x / 10x the national average (4.7%, 4.9%) respectively. Through these incentives and cultural shifts, Shiga has successfully reduced chemical fertilizer and pesticide loads in the Lake Biwa environment by 18% and 40% respectively since 2000. 100% of the breweries named above work extensively with organic and EFA rice, not just for philosophical or personal reasons, but because the supply itself is so heavily skewed in this way. To have almost 70% of farmers recruited to the cause of reducing environmental impacts is unlike any other place in the world.

We're grateful that the sake rice we grow can be turned into sake that we can enjoy ourselves," says Mr. Takahashi of Rakuno Farm Yoshida Agricultural Cooperative, which was established in 2002. He took on the task of cultivating abandoned rice fields in the area, and was incorporated in 2008.
Takahashi has been cultivating sake rice since they first began their activities as a farming cooperative. They were encouraged by the president of Okamura Shuzo, Mr. Okamura, to grow sake rice for his brewery. Takahashi-san first experimented with cultivating Tamazakae while adhering to environmentally conscious agriculture standards, using less than half the amount of pesticides and chemical fertilizers than usual. "Environmentally conscious sake rice farming isn't the same as regular rice, and the timing of herbicides can be tricky. In the end, we have to use a manual weeder and rely on a large team of workers." Takahashi reflected on his efforts, saying, "It's all for Lake Biwa.” Interview

Who: Omi Shonin

In ancient times, Shiga was known as Ōmi Province. Its proximity to the ancient capitals of Nara (~700 AD) and Heian-Kyo (Kyoto, ~900 AD), as well as its unique natural resources, made Omi an important cultural and political crossroads. As mentioned previously, the Tendai buddhist sect made its home in the mountain range bordering Heian-Kyo near Otsu, which was itself the capital of Japan for a blink of an eye, 667 to 672, when Emperor Tenji built the Ōmi Ōtsu Palace.

Because of its location Omi served as a key transportation route between eastern and western Japan. Many nobles, merchants, and travelers passed through its eastern shores where Japan’s most important walking highways converged, bottlenecked by mountains. Trading with travelers, supplying travelers, and serving the needs of the tired, hungry and thirsty, Omi’s role as a trading post was well established by the 7th century. But the unique culture of its local merchants is most often dated to the 16th century.

When Oda Nobunaga built Azuchi Castle in 1576, he granted special privileges to merchants in the city and established a system called rakuichi- rakuza (“free markets, open guilds”): a free trade zone which effectively eliminated the region’s monopoly trade guilds. Nobunaga was killed and Azuchi castle destroyed soon after, but Toyotomi Hidetsugu (1568–1595), built his castle in the town of neighboring Hachiman and invited the Azuchi merchants to settle, continuing Nobunaga’s free-trade policies. By the time Hachiman Castle was destroyed, free trade had already spread throughout Shiga and encouraged the rise of a new merchant class. The Omi Shonin typically dealt in regional goods, and next to Lake Biwa this included mosquito nets, tatami surface matting, hemp cloth products, food and sake, but their wares diversified as their influence spread. Walking merchants traveled hundreds of miles on foot with wares balanced across their shoulders, eventually establishing the goshu-dana (Omi Shop) system: satellite shops in throughout Japan. They even played a key role in the colonization of Ezo (Hokkaido), and before travel was forbidden, some journeyed as far as Siam (now Thailand) and Annam (Vietnam).

In the Edo period, a rigid, hereditary four-tiered system called Shi-Nō-Kō-Shō, organized the social hierarchy. Samurai (Shi) at the top, followed by farmers (Nō), artisans (Kō), and merchants (Shō) at the bottom, based on Confucian ideals of moral purity, not wealth. The Omi merchants overcame this social adversity and succeeded even while trading in distant regions as outsiders by adhering to a series of principles that have since entered the fabric of modern Japanese business practices.

“[Operating] principles were passed on from one generation to the next and were seen as fundamental for the lasting success of a family business. One was shimatsu shite kibaru (“save and strive”), expressing the merchants’ belief that long-term business success depends on making the most of what you have and working hard, while the best-known principle is sanpo yoshi, or “benefit for all three parties.” This means any business deal should be good for the seller, good for the buyer, and good for society at large.

The Omi merchants’ ethos of contributing to society is reflected in the concept of intoku zenji, or “hidden virtue and good deeds.” For the merchants, it was important to share wealth for the benefit of society without seeking praise and publicity for such works. They underwrote the construction of schools, roads, and bridges, and donated generously to shrines and temples.” (Source)

By adhering to these precepts, and forbidding speculation/lending (except for high-ranking nobles and daimyo), their social capital proved incredibly strong. For instance in the Chichibu rebellion of 1884, farmers suffered a severe deflationary slump and revolted, slaughtering government officials and local loan sharks. Among wealthy residents, only the Yao family goshu-dana was spared by the furious mob.

As a highly valued product throughout Japanese history, sake of course played an important role in Omi merchants’ activities. Within Shiga, a majority of the currently active breweries were started by Omi merchant families or branch families. Since completed sake was difficult to transport and trade, goshu-dana branch outlets often established breweries in remote areas to utilize extra rice and generate additional value. Shown at right is a sake brewery in Saitama that was established by Omi merchants from Hino (Shiga). Terada Honke in Chiba, Morita Shoube in Aomori, Tonoike Shuzo and Tsuji Zenbei in Tochigi are only a few of countless others originally founded by traveling Omi merchants. These families took skilled labor with them, bringing Kansai brewing technology and equipment to regions without it. In one particularly interesting case dating to the late 1600s, a daimyo (regional lord) carried a sizable loan with the Naba merchant family. When the Naba family’s home burned down, they approached the daimyo to collect on that loan so that they could rebuild their home. But the daimyo couldn’t afford to repay, so he offered instead to give the Naba family land, rice tithes and support for building a home in Akita. The family went on to establish a sake brewery (among other businesses), Naba Shoten, who are today makers of one of our regular products, Minato “Harbor” Nama Genshu (in the can).

During the Meiji period, there was also a job placement agency in Otsu called "Hokkokuya (Notoya)" that connected Noto Toji kurabito (brewers and toji) from Ishikawa’s Noto peninsula to breweries in Shiga, Kyoto, and the rest of Kansai that were hiring. There were separate job placement agencies in Shiga for unskilled labor from the northern coast to operate foot-powered rice polishing mortars, but Noto toji were incredibly skilled. They had a reputation for working hard to produce the robust and full-bodied styles of Yamahai and Kimoto sake that were popular in the cold, blue collar Noto area and they brought this preference en masse to Shiga’s 200 Meiji-era breweries.. This influx of skilled labor formed the technical body of Shiga’s 19th and early 20th century brewing style, and is still so noticeable today that their influence is noted in the region’s official sake geographic indication, GI Shiga, established in 2022.

Timo-san spoke with pride about his family’s heritage, descending from Omi merchants in the Hachiman area where Hata shuzo (Daijiro) is located. The idea that you should do good by your customers, do good for the community and the environment, do business ethically and selflessly, is still part of his core value system. This is also reflected in the philosophy of the Daijiro brand at Hata Shuzo. “The impetus for Daijiro came from a farmer who said, ‘I want to drink sake made from the rice I grow.’ Until then, we had been purchasing sake rice from the brewers' association, and although we knew the general production area, we did not know the farmer.” In response to his farmer friend, Daijiro Hata (owner-toji of Hata Shuzo) was inspired to launch a new, eponymous brand: DAIJIRO, made only with rice from his immediate community.

Daijiro-san and his neighbors organized an association of farmers under the name Donhakusho no Kai, the “Drinking and Laughing Party,” posing above in the photo. At its core, this is a group of friends who farm, drink and laugh together, inspiring Daijiro to make sake he’s proud to bring to the table. “People who grow rice, sell it, and make sake with it, all can see each others‘ faces and talk to each other.” In line with the Omi Merchant buddhist tradition, the labels are drawn by the head priest of Hosen-ji Temple: an accomplished calligrapher, Akira Masuda (at left). In keeping with the principles of sanpo yoshi, the label paper is handmade by a local adult care home using local fibers and affixed to bottles one by one.

“When you travel (…) to peddle products (…) always care about people in that region so that customers can enjoy shopping. Do not think only about yourself and do not care only about making money. (…) Be careful not to be greedy.

Once people become wealthy, they become arrogant. Once they become arrogant, they become impolite. Once they become impolite, they become hated. Once they are hated, their misfortunes follow one after the next. Once they suffer misfortunes, they incur losses. Once they lose, they fall into poverty. Once they fall into poverty, they commit crimes. Once they commit crimes, their lives are ruined.” (Omi Merchant - Source)

(Above, Daijiro-san with the calligrapher-priest).