Friendship through sake: A toast to closer Korea–Japan ties
In early April, the Seoul JoongAng Rotary Club (RI District 3650) hosted a special cultural event that celebrated more than just the arrival of spring — it offered a toast to the friendship between Korea and Japan. The guest speaker, Kazuhiro Kawase, director of the Japanese Cultural Center at the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, gave an insightful lecture on Japan’s traditional rice wine, sake, which was added to UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list in December 2024.
Similar to Korean cheongju, sake is not merely a drink — it is a centuries-old tradition deeply woven into Japanese life. Kawase’s lecture explored the fascinating world of sake brewing, beginning with an overview of its varieties and distinctive production techniques.
Highlights included junmai, a pure rice sake with a robust, natural flavor; honjozo, with added alcohol for a lighter taste; and the refined ginjo and daiginjo, made from highly polished rice and known for their floral and fruity notes. Namazake, unpasteurized and fresh, requires refrigeration, while nigorizake, sweet and cloudy, recalls Korea’s makgeolli.
An engaging part of the session was learning more about each of Japan’s 43 prefectures' unique sakes, shaped by the different regional climates, water and brewing traditions. Members sampled honjozo, including "Matsumoto" from Kyoto and "Kikuhime" from Ishikawa — and were drawn into a warm, fragrant world of sweet rice, aged wood, and spring-like floral notes. Participants also enjoyed learning about snacks made from sake by-products, such as senbei (Japanese rice crackers) and polished rice confections. A memorable part of the lesson was that even premium sake is best enjoyed fresh, as aging can dull its subtlety.
For me, the event stirred memories of my student days in Japan decades ago, when I drank sake without grasping its heritage. Now, with renewed curiosity, I dream of sitting in a steaming a countryside hot spring bath, sipping hirezake — a warm sake with a rich, savory depth, perfectly complemented by the smoky, slightly charred flavor of a burnt puffer fish's fin — beneath blooming cherry trees, a perfect celebration of spring and shared culture.
In a gesture of goodwill, the Seoul JoongAng Rotary Club presented Kawase with a traditional Korean white porcelain bottle adorned with a string motif in iron powder pigment. Echoing National Treasure No. 1060 at the National Museum of Korea, this design once allowed leftover liquor to be tied up and conveniently carried at the waist. Today, it stands as a symbol of cultural exchange and enduring respect.
Kawase’s lecture was more than a cultural presentation — it marked a meaningful step in engaging with the complex yet enduring Korea–Japan relationship. Though often described as close yet distant, these two intertwined nations can find common ground in shared traditions like sake and cheongju — bringing them closer as kindred neighbors.
As we raise our sake cups together in goodwill, may we also raise our hopes for a future of deeper understanding and friendship between Korea and Japan — one sip at a time.
Shin Hye-suk (sinesu@naver.com), who also goes by Shindy, completed a doctorate in sociology and has devoted two decades of her life to academic pursuits at a university in Japan. She is also a florist and has served as president of the Rotary International Seoul Club Korea.