When Did Sake Imports Arrive in America?
This post is about an interesting sake artifact that opens a window onto the earliest days of sake importation into America.
On our last sake research trip to Japan in January and February of this year we spent a day in Saijo, the historic sake-brewing town in eastern Hiroshima. Just under an hour’s train ride from Hiroshima Station, it’s still home to eight breweries, a number of which have tasting rooms. Our generous guide that day was Kamoizumi Brewery president Kazuhiro Maegaki, who took us on a tour of the village and his brewery. His mother and wife fed us a magnificent feast of Hiroshima oysters, but that’s another story, and one you’ll find in our book.
At a beautiful, recently completed sake museum run by Kamotsuru Brewery, we gazed at a wealth of interesting old sake-making tools, advertising posters and sake vessels from throughout the centuries. What caught my eye was this pre-war Kamotsuru packing crate. The museum considers it a precious artifact because it allowed the company to figure out when it began to export sake overseas. The accompanying placard explains that the brewery, which dates back to the Edo period (1603-1868), began exporting to Hawaii in 1896 and to the mainland in 1903, when it first arrived in Los Angeles.
This crate would have been sent to Los Angeles sometime after the end of Prohibition in 1933 and before America entered World War II in 1941. It’s addressed to All Star Trading Co. on South San Pedro Street, an area I know pretty well.
This was in Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo, which during the pre-war era was lively mix of small businesses, Buddhist temples, avant garde artists, photographers, plus lots of literary and journalistic activity. Sake would have been a welcome addition to weddings, salons and after-hour parties.
The only reference I could find to the trading company was this great map of Little Tokyo businesses in 1940 made by Japantown Atlas. There, at the very bottom of the map, on South San Pedro Street, is All Star Trading Co. & Kageyama Co. Inc., listed as an import/export/sake business.
I sent the above photos to the Little Tokyo Historical Society to see if I could learn more about All Star Trading. An anonymous staffer found it fascinating, and wrote back, “The LA region and Southern California had many Issei immigrants from Hiroshima,” and speculated about a possible connection between the trading company and the brewery. Unfortunately, the historical society didn’t have any further information on All Star Trading or Kageyama Co., but offered to check pre- and post-war Japanese phone directories to look for these companies.
The helpful staffer noted that the research library at the Japanese American National Museum may have some information on this company, but alas, it’s closed now due to the Covid-19 crisis. Kamotsuru sent me some additional photos of the crate (thank you, Shintani-san!), but was not able to add more detail than what’s on the placard.
We do know that the box found its way back to Kamotsuru courtesy of someone in Okayama Prefecture. As thrifty Issei (first-generation Japanese immigrants) always did, one of them repurposed this crate. When it arrived at All Star from Japan it was filled with a dozen 1.8 liter bottles of sake, and was the188th box of the shipment. So a lot of Kamotsuru was being consumed in L.A.! The person who sent the box back to Japan likely filled it with omiyage, or gifts for family back home in Okayama. Or maybe it was brought back to Japan in person, by a child of immigrants sent to the homeland to be educated there.
In any case, it would have been filled with exotic American ingredients. If it were sent back after the war, it was likely filled with staples like sugar, flour, and cigarettes to minister to the widespread food shortages and starvation of the time.
I will mention just two other items. One was this glittering display of the brewery’s landmark Daiginzo Tokusei Gold from 1958. It presaged the economic miracle that was to come, when Japan began to emerge from the ruins of war on a wave of cars and small electronics manufacturing. A luxury product from the get-go, this sake featured (and still features) flakes of gold leaf in each bottle that represent cherry blossoms. If you’re curious about why it’s called daiginzo” instead of “daiginjo,” check out this article.
Nearby is a display of a precious Kakiemon sake vessel fired in Akita, Saga Prefecture to hold Goka Kamotsuru, a limited, ultra-luxe sake that was launched in 1960. Kakiemon is a delicate, highly detailed sub-genre of Arita ware; these vessels are made by the Sakaida Kakiemon Kiln, named for the sixteenth-century founder of the style. When the series started, it was the twelfth generation Sakaida potter making it, now it is the fifteenth!
Let me know if you have any favorite vessels from which to drink your sake. We’ll be including a great infographic on sake vessels in our book, and it has me thinking about all of the beautiful guinomi I’ve seen inside and outside of Japan.
Stay safe and kanpai!
Postscript: After I posted this, I heard from Boston-based writer Richard Auffrey who writes on food, wine, sake and spirits. He reports that All Star Trading was founded by Setsuo Aratani in 1936, and closed at the end of 1941. Sure enough, Setsuo was from Hiroshima, so it made sense that he connected with Kamotsuru and imported the brewery’s sake. The Aratani family went on to become prominent in LA business and cultural life, and since the JA community there is not huge, there are overlaps between that family and mine. I hope to share more interesting information from Richard in a later post. Thank you, Richard!
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