A small break from Aizu for a matter that came up after a comment of a very regular reader of Nihon Arekore: the big brown balls hanging in front of Japan's sake breweries and often in front of its sake bars are called "sugidama" (杉玉) that is "cryptomeria ball" or "sakabayashi"(酒林) that is "sake forest" and, as their name suggests they are made from very small twigs of that tree. It is said that the tradition started from the holy cryptomerias of the holy mountain Miwa in Nara's Sakai, where the Miwa Jinja (三輪神社) or Ohmiwa Jinja (大神神社) also is; the shrine is supposed to be one of Japan's oldest Shinto shrines, if not the oldest and it's the tutelary shrine of sake brewers.
The spherical shape was standardized during the Edo Period and the custom says that a new one is hanged in front of the brewery or the drinking place in autumn, when the year's production starts and stays there until the green twigs become brown, around February-March; when this happens, it means that the new sake is ready. Even today, some prefer to get their sugidama from Miwa Jinja: in the last picture below, the ball is from there, hence the label "Sake no Kamisama, Miwa Jinja" (酒の神様三輪神社) which means "God of Sake, Miwa Shrina". All pictures are from shops here in Asakusa: five drinking places and one liquor store, while the reader's interest was sparked by the presence of one outside the Suehiro brewery in yesterday's top picture.
(For a bigger version of these pictures both in color and black and white, check my "Japan Arekore" set on Flickr)
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