Senzaburo Miura
 
　Saijo, Higashihiroshima City, is known nationwide for its sake.
　Saijo in Higashihiroshima City is known nationwide as a famous sake producing town, along with Nada in Hyogo Prefecture and Fushimi in Kyoto Prefecture.
Many people worked hard to make Saijo sake this famous. Among them was Senzaburo Miura from Mitsu, Akitsu Cho, who developed new technology to make better sake.


Repeated failure
Senzaburo started producing sake in 1876 to make delicious sake. However, he had trouble making good sake. No matter hard he tried, most sake he made went bad.
“There must be a reason why I fail,”
Senzaburo thought. Naturally passionate about studying, refused to give up and looked for the reason. He sometimes disagreed with the master brewers who were the leaders of sake production.
 

New technology
In 1893, someone told Senzaburo that the first issue for sake production was water, and that making delicious sake using the same method but with a different kind of water was impossible. Senzaburo examined the water in Mitsu and found out that it was soft water not suited to sake production.
　Senzaburo conducted repeated experiments and researche to find a method to produce delicious sake with soft water.
In 1898, he came up with a brewing method called the soft water brewing method. Instead of depending on the master brewers’ skills and instincts, he developed this method to make sake slowly at a low temperature in a clean sake brewery, using thermometers. The taste changed as a result, and he succeeded in turning Hiroshima, which went bad easily, into delicious sake.
Senzaburo’s effort finally bore fruit. Senzaburo did not keep his method hidden from anyone. He even wrote it down and shared with other sake brewers. He also sent out his master brewer to teach his method. Instead of pursuing personal profit, he wanted to develop the sake production technology of his town.