Sho-Chu Time / Distillery in Japan’s Amami Islands Produces ‘Sonic-aged’ Shochu; Different Music Genres Found to Age Shochu in Different Ways

By Ryuichi Sonoda / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

2:00 JST, January 14, 2025

Kagoshima Prefecture is one of the nation’s major production areas of shochu. This is the second in a series introducing the charm of the distilled spirit and the people involved in its creation.

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AMAMI, Kagoshima — A distillery that produces kokuto brown sugar shochu is aging its drinks through a unique process. The Amami-based distillery in Kagoshima Prefecture uses a so-called Sonic Aging method in which the shochu is aged using different types of music via a speaker attached to the barrel.

“The taste, aroma and mouthfeel of the shochu differ depending on the genre of music,” said Serena Nishihira, the master distiller and fourth-generation president of Nishihira Distillery.

Kokuto shochu is characterized by the sweet aroma of brown sugar made from processed sugar cane and its clean, refreshing taste. When the Amami Islands were returned to Japan in 1953, shochu production from brown sugar was permitted only within the islands. Today, there are 25 distilleries on five of the islands.

The Sonic Aging method is used on six barrels in Nishihira Distillery’s warehouse, and they each contain the equivalent of 600 bottles that hold 720 milliliters of shochu. Each barrel is equipped with a speaker that plays one of six types of music. These include hip-hop, Latin and house music.

The sound aging process works by having sound waves create vibrations in the barrels. The subtle differences in the way the shochu sways cause changes to the areas that come into contact with the sides of the barrel, adding new flavors and colors to the shochu.

The sound can only be heard when placing your ear close to the barrel, and each barrel is designed to be unaffected by the vibrations of other sounds.

After graduating from Showa University of Music in Kanagawa Prefecture, Nishihira continued her musical activities in Tokyo. However, she returned to her hometown in 2014 after her father became ill. She learned how to make shochu, becoming master distiller in 2017 and the fourth president of the company in 2021.

With shochu consumption at a low ebb, she felt a need to create new demand for the product.

At that time, a foreign staff member who had moved to Amami because of shochu told Nishihira about overseas whisky that had been matured by exposing it to music, and that it would be nice to be able to compare shochu that had been matured with different music.

She decided to try maturing shochu by exposing it to her favorite types of music. After a period of preparation, she started the project in November 2023.

After a little over a year of maturing, she can now sense the music’s effects when she tastes it.

Nishihira can sense the differences when the shochu hits her tongue and the sensation when she swallows it depending on the music.

“The shochu that was aged with reggae has a smooth taste, and the one aged with rock has a sour taste and was very stimulating,” she said.

Nishihira also tried shima-uta, indigenous traditional songs, which gave it a gentle taste and aroma, she said.

“I want people to compare the drinks and find their favorites.”

The project is progressing well, and the company plans to launch a limited-time presale on a crowdfunding site in March, about a year and a half ahead of schedule. She hopes to launch a general sale around May.

In addition to looking at overseas expansion, Nishihira is also considering increasing the number of music genres and extending the aging period.

“I want consumers to be able to buy a whole barrel and let it mature with the music they choose. I also want to expose shochu to songs by some artists willing to cooperate. I wonder how the shochu would react to natural sounds or rakugo comic storytelling.”

You can read this article in Japanese here.