Good Ol’ Amazake Shop Warms Hearts of Tokyoites; Healthy Drink Can Be Enjoyed Cold or Hot

By Masaki Shishido / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

10:57 JST, December 24, 2024

To get to a quaint amazake sweet sake shop, walk across Hijiribashi bridge from Tokyo’s JR Ochanomizu Station. Continue along National Highway Route 17, and with the Yushima Seido hall to your right, you’ll see a torii gate leading to Kanda Myojin shrine. Next to the torii gate is Amanoya, an established amazake shop that has been selling and serving the drink since 1846.

Amanoya’s original building burned down during World War II and was reconstructed after the war. The shop sells various fermented foods, including natto made with large soybeans and miso. At their cafe, they also serve amazake and traditional Japanese desserts, such as kuzumochi kudzu starch cakes and anmitsu, whose main ingredients include fruits, sweet red bean paste and agar jelly.

Upon stepping inside the cafe, you will see that it is crammed with vintage posters, miniature trains and teacups, making you feel like you have been transported back to the Showa era (1926-89). These items were collected for fun by the fifth-generation master, Yaichi Amano, and his son, Hiromitsu Amano, the sixth-generation master.

The amazake is made solely of rice and rice malt and it can be enjoyed both cold and hot. Cold amazake is refreshing, while hot amazake has a mild taste and warms you from within. Although they are the same drinks, they have completely different impressions.

“It takes roughly four to five days from making rice malt to selling amazake as a finished product,” said Fumiko Amano, the 77-year-old okami female manager.

The cafe serves amazake with slices of takuan pickled daikon radish. Their salty taste provides a nice break from the sweetness of the drink. Shaved ice made of amazake is popular in summer, Amano added.

The shop has a brick-lined basement called a muro located six meters beneath it where rice malt is made. According to 44-year-old Daisuke Amano, the seventh-generation master of Amanoya, the original basement was renovated during the Meiji era (1868-1912) to become what it is today. A look at the basement’s floor plan at the time shows that it was large and extended as far as the road approaching Kanda Myojin shrine. Due to development in the neighborhood, the basement was mostly demolished or filled in during the 1990s. Yet Amanoya continues to make rice malt in what remains of its basement.

Amazake is sometimes dubbed “drinkable IV” because it is believed to be high in nutrients. A nearby hospital uses Amanoya’s amazake in its meals. The cold winter weather will soon become more severe. It will be nice to stay healthy by drinking amazake, which will warm our bodies and hearts.

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Amanoya

Address: 2-18-15 Soto-Kanda, Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo

Access: Five-minute walk from JR Ochanomizu Station or Shin-Ochanomizu Station on the Chiyoda Line

Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (The cafe closes at 4 p.m.) Closed on Tuesdays.