According to Miho Fujita, rules are meant to be broken in the sake world, On a snowy winter day, Miho Fujita, president of Mioya Shuzo sake brewery in Ishikawa Prefecture, dons a white jacket and picks up a long, wooden paddle. Before manually crushing rice in a bucket of yeast starter โ a mixture of steamed rice, water and koji (steamed rice inoculated with kลji mold, which breaks down starch into sugar) – she plays a Korean pop song from a speaker.
In ancient times, brewers sang work songs to ease the burden of the laborious process of traditional preparation kimoto method. Fujita knows those old tunes by heart, but she has updated the tradition in her own way and given the age-old craft a modern twist. This progressive spirit is emblematic of the way she has handled every aspect of running Mioya Shuzo over the past twenty years.
Fujita’s journey into the world of sake began in 2000 when her father, a native of Hakui, bought Mioya Shuzo, a brewery on the brink of bankruptcy. When her uncle, who ran the company, died suddenly in 2003, Fujita decided to step in and take on the role โ despite her successful marketing career in Tokyo and the obstacles she faced as a woman in a male-dominated industry.
