AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES. 97 



Sake is manufactured only in the coldest months, from Novem- 

 ber to February, and Koji in the same season. But preparations 

 are often made as early as October. The hulled rice is first of all 

 washed with fresh water, the latter being renewed so long as it 

 gets a milky colour from the rice. Then it lies one night in 

 the last bath of water, thus becoming soft. Steam does the rest. 

 This is made in an iron boiler and then let loose amid the rice, so 

 that there is no possibility of sprouting and developing diastase, as 

 in the preparation of malt with us. 



When the steamed rice has become so soft that it is easily 

 kneaded into dough between the fingers, it is spread out on straw 

 mats to cool. There, when reduced to blood-heat, it is treated 

 with Fane-koji, a teaspoonful of the latter to 4 To {j^ liter) of rice. 

 In making the mixture, the fungus-spores are first thoroughly 

 mingled with a small portion of the rice-mass, after which the 

 compounding of the whole body is undertaken. 



The rice thus spread out is now left for about three days on 

 mats in warm rooms, for the development of the mould fungus. 

 In factories built expressly for the manufacture of Koji, these 

 apartments are subterranean chambers 8 to 10 m. long, 2\ m. 

 broad, and \\ m. high, made in a clay soil 3 to 4 m. under ground. 

 They communicate with the entrance to a square shaft 3 to 4 m. 

 deep, and 2 m. wide, by means of low, narrow passages, whose 

 openings are hung with straw mats. The purpose of this whole 

 arrangement is evidently to preserve the high temperature in the 

 chambers unchanged as long as possible. 



Along both of the side walls of every chamber a bank of earth 

 is left, \ m. high, and near the entrance to the chamber there 

 is a depression, in which the mats are laid with the rice wrapped 

 up in them, and kept all night at a temperature of 25-26° C. 

 Next morning the rice is manipulated to prevent its balling 

 together. Towards afternoon it is found covered with the Myce- 

 lium of the fungus as with a white blanket. It is now shaken out 

 into baskets frequently sprinkled with cold water, while being 

 tossed about. It is next laid out on boards and partitioned off 

 with racks, the boards being put side by side on the banks in the 

 chambers. During the day and a half in which the rice remains 

 here, it is thoroughly mixed by hand several times, to separate 

 the grains which have stuck together. Finally, on the morn- 

 ing of the fifth day (counting from when the rice was washed), 

 the boards with the finished Koji are taken out of the chambers 

 and put away, one above the other, in a cool, airy place, to await 

 sale or use. The Koji last in this way several months without 

 being spoiled by the formation of spores, which announce their 

 presence by yellow spots. When the chambers have a temperature 

 of 20° C, that of the rice rises to 25-28° C. because of the de- 

 velopment of fungus, and in the morning even higher, for then the 

 fungus grows faster than in the afternoon. 



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