or ''Kuchikami no sake'' is a kind of rice-based alcohol produced by a process involving human
saliva as a
fermentation starter. Kuchikamizake was one of the earliest types of Japanese alcoholic drinks. ''Kuchi'' means "mouth", ''kami'' means "to chew" and ''zake'' is the
rendaku
is a phenomenon in Japanese morphophonology that governs the voicing of the initial consonant of a non-initial portion of a compound or prefixed word. In modern Japanese, ''rendaku'' is common but at times unpredictable, with certain words un ...
form of "sake".
Description
Kuchikamizake is white in colour and has a sour taste. After two weeks of fermentation, it can achieve up to 7% ABV.
It is made from chewed rice; the mixture of the enzymes from saliva and rice result in the fermentation process.
Some islands in
Okinawa Prefecture still held shinto ceremonies involving chewed sake until the 1930s.
[http://depts.nanzan-u.ac.jp/ugrad/JINBUN/Jinruibunka/depinfo/item/FWReport_2011_Yoshida.pdf 2011年度南山大学人文学部人類文化学科フィールドワーク（文化人類学）I1・II2調査報告書 Nanzan University, 2011, p47]
In media
Kuchikamizake is featured as a plot point in Makoto Shinkai's ''
Your Name
is a 2016 Japanese animated romantic fantasy film produced by CoMix Wave Films. It depicts a high school boy in Tokyo and a high school girl in the Japanese countryside who suddenly and inexplicably begin to swap bodies. The film was commis ...
''.
See also
*''
Chicha''
*
Mead
References
Sake
Japanese alcoholic drinks
Japanese words and phrases
Rice wine
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