Label of Japanese Sake: what it's like

History of Sake Label:

The development of Nada sake in the Tokugawa period was based on the transportation of the sake to Edo by ship. Some picture in those days shows ships loaded with a number of barrels with marks written in sumi for purpose of distinction. They are considered to be origin of labels of sake.(Hoji Kino. 1979)

From left: Yuyu(Faraway), Shinkame(Tortoise of God) , Tosaduru(Crane in Tosa), Tsukasabotan(National tree peony), Kamoduru(Crane in Kamo).

All are nihonshu and written in Kanji.

- Yuyu is written by ink brush. However this is rather art than the word. The designer wrote like this to show the image of this sake.


- Shinkame is also like art and actually we can see “神” means god and usually kanji of tortoise is “亀”. “亀” is written in artistic style. We can’t recognize without hiragana or katakana letter which explain kanji letter.


- Tosaduru is written in standard ink brush style. However this label has picture of rice which represents nihonshu is made of rice. Also this has katakana to explain how to read kanji.

- Tsukasbotan is also written in ink brush and many tree peonies are written on the label. Also center circle is like silhouette of tree peony. We can see katakana on upper label to explain how to read kanji.

- Kamotsuru has many kinds of letter, kanji, katakana and English letter and also picture of Mt. Fuji which means the best highest in Japan. The reason this label has many kinds of letter is that in 1896 kamotsuru was transported in the U.S. and in 1900 was also transported in Paris so they put roman letters to make all over the world recognize. (The Kamotsuru Sake Brewing Company. 2006)

The reason Tosatsuru and Shinkame has katakana is only for fashion.
I don’t think that nihonshu labels always have to have kanji or hiragana because even if they are written in katakana, which is born in Japan and Japanese letter. It’s enough to represent Japan. Also I feel that nihonshu which is sold in the world need to have some English words to be global. However the name must be written in kanji letter or hiragana letter.



From left: Kofukurou(Little owl), Kannoko(the River of God), Tantakatan(Mt.Tantaka), Kyou no Hikari and Shiranami(White Wave).

They are all shochu.

-Kofukurou has hiragana letter in ink brush style with gold color and picture of little owl. This is like art and so fashionable.

-Kannoko has English poems they have a deep meaning but usually they can be just a ornament because normally Japanese people can't read and don't care about them.


-Tantakatan has difficult kanji which we hardly use and beautiful picture which represents the Japanese folk story named Tantakatan. (OENON 2007) This picture is drawn by imaging this story.


-Hikari has simple hiragana letter and picture of geisha which represent Kyoto.


-Shiranami has kanji letter and picture of wave and moon. We can see strong impact of sea from picture.



Usually these label name and design is created by a producer who made sake and by image of sake.