AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES. 



95 



country, and are of great interest from the way in which they are 

 obtained and utilized. In the domestic economy of the Japanese 

 — and of the Chinese, too, to some extent— several of these have 

 played for centuries the indispensable ?'^/^ of condiment to their food, 

 making even the most insipid agreeable to the taste. In this way 

 they have excited attention and imitation, more or less, in Europe, 

 and especially in England. Others find a place as valuable articles 

 of diet, being qualified, by their large proportion of nitrogen, to take 

 the place of meat. Others again contain sufficient alcohol and 

 admixtures of it to produce exaltation and make the head heavy 

 — a gratification which, it seems, many people even in Eastern 

 Asia cannot deny themselves. And for these intoxicating drinks 

 the Government shows an interest scarcely second to that taken by 

 Christian States themselves, in that it has for a long period been 

 drawing revenue from them. Thus there is no lack of the necessary 

 statistics in regard to production and consumption. In this respect, 

 at least, intoxicating drinks take precedence of all other of these 

 products, so I set them at the head of the following list and now 

 proceed to them. 



I. Sake or Seishu is the intoxicating beverage par excellence of 

 Japan and both its western neighbours. It is prepared from rice, 

 as is well known, but has little resemblance to the Indian arrack. 

 And the terms "rice-beer" and "rice-brandy" so often applied to 

 it do not properly characterize it, for Sake differs widely from beer 

 and brandy, especially in the quantity of alcohol contained ; like 

 wine, occupying in this respect a place mid-way between them. 

 Foreigners seldom relish the peculiar taste of Sake. The Japanese, 

 however, like it so very much that they in their temple-feasts do 

 not fail to set some of it before the gods, with their favourite 

 food, in ancient fashion. This dedicated Sake is called Miki ^ or 

 6 Miki. The inhabitants of Japan are universally fond of hot 

 drinks, be it even warm water, in default of tea or Sake, and so 

 they prefer this liquor heated, and drink it from their small cups 

 of porcelain or lacquered wood. 



In 1874 Chief StafT-surgeon Hoffmann gave the first short account 

 of Sake manufacture, from personal observation.^ Four years later 

 there followed a more comprehensive, scientific work on the subject 

 by Korschelt,''^ and at last, in 188 r, a second, by Atkinson, a 

 treatise of great merit,* which supplements that of Korschelt in 

 many places, and has been made use of, with it, for what follows 

 here. 



^ Mi is a prefix of honour, as in Mikado, Midera, and Ke or Ki is the oldest 

 name for Sake. 



2 " Sake- und Myrin-Bereitung," von HofTfmann. " Mitth. der deutsch. 

 Gesellschaft Ostasiens." 6. Heft, 1874. 



3 "Ueber Sake," von O. Korschelt. 16. Heft. 1878, von den "Mitth. der 

 deutsch. Ges. Ostasiens." 



^ " The Chemistry of Sake-brewing," by R. W. Atkinson. " Memoirs of the 

 Science Department, Tokio." Daigaku, 1881. 



