amazake

Amazake (甘酒) is a thick, sweet, low-alcohol drink made from fermented rice, its name combining ama (甘, sweet) and sake (酒, alcohol or rice wine). The Nihon Shoki (日本書紀), the chronicle completed in 720, records a drink called ame-no-sake offered at the palace of Emperor Suinin around the third century; most historians read this as an early form of amazake. The technique requires rice, water, and koji mold (Aspergillus oryzae), which converts the rice starches to sugars without yeast. That absence of yeast keeps the alcohol content near zero.

The Engishiki (927) lists amazake explicitly among drinks served at court banquets and seasonal rites. Shrine records from the Heian period describe it as a warming drink for laborers during cold months, distributed at public works sites where temples and roads were under construction. Aristocrats drank it cold in summer; workers drank it warm in winter. The same fermentation, two temperatures, two contexts: its versatility was observed and recorded early.

Street vendors called amazake-uri (甘酒売り) appear in Edo-period woodblock prints, carrying large lacquered casks on shoulder poles and ladling the drink into small cups in winter streets. Hiroshige's Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido (1833) depicts roadside stalls at post towns along the highway. The drink cost one mon, the smallest coin, and was one of the cheapest warm foods available to the urban poor during Edo winters. Medical manuals of the period also recommended it as a standard recovery food for illness.

Modern amazake comes in two forms: the koji-only version with essentially no alcohol, now marketed as a health drink and infant food, and a version made from sake lees (sakekasu) that retains a small amount of alcohol and a stronger flavor. The koji version became prominent in the 1980s health food movement and saw a second surge in the 2010s when fermented foods gained mainstream nutritional attention. Convenience stores sell it canned year-round, though it remains most associated with New Year (oshoogatsu) and shrine visits in January.