It is no secret that, in recent years, the sake industry has faced a pretty serious generational problem. Many of the key figures in the industry, such as the Master Brewers (Toji, 杜氏), were aging rapidly, often without younger sucessors coming up through the ranks. A company can have the best product in the world, however, it means nothing if there is nobody to continue to make it. As I was informed during my visit, in the case of Yoshida Shuzo, the Toji there is fast approaching his seventies. Fortunately for Tedorigawa they have such a successor waiting in the wings. 

If before reading this you have watched the documentary, you will no doubt know that the brewery owner’s son, dare I say the star of the documentary, is ready to take over the day that the Toji decides he has finally made his last batch. At the time of filming, 6th generation heir Yoshida Yasuyuki, was only 27 years old. However, having been literally raised in the brewery, it is evident that he is already very experienced and is said to have decided early on that what he wanted to do was make sake rather than just fulfil the role of company president. I was lucky that for my visit Yasuyuki-san was on hand to give me a personal tour along with a brilliantly paced explanation of the sake making process. Being completely honest, if I try and imagine myself in his position, with some sake geek turning up during the peak of the brewing season, taking pictures and asking lots of silly questions in broken Japanese, I would probably not have been half as patient and accommodating as he was. However, this is just one of the reasons why I believe the future of the industry relies on people such as him.

As industry legends such as John Gauntner and Philip Harper have both eluded to in the past, sake has previously suffered from having an image of being a bit of an old man’s drink. Some industry commentators have also highlighted Japan’s ageing population as being a potentially serious problem in the future when that particular generation is no longer with us. However, looking at recent developments within segments of the industry, sake nowadays is anything but suffering from a image problem. In fact, these same people now talk of how cool it has become. I believe that at the heart of this are people like Yasayuki-san, who represent a new generation of brewers who can inject fresh ideas into the industry and better embrace modern media channels. For example, I couldn’t help but notice that on more than one occasion during my visit he referenced wine making when talking about the brewing process. His appreciation and knowledge of wine is also evident during the documentary, not to mention on his personal Facebook timeline. At the time I wrote my dissertation, I was convinced that the more the sake industry latches on to the wine industry, the more popular it will become abroad. Perhaps since then, I have become a bit more optimistic about sake's prospects of making its own mark on foreign markets, without having to piggyback on another industry. However, it’s great to see first-hand part of the new generation looking where perhaps those before them didn’t.