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Kuchikamizake


Kuchikamizake (口噛み酒, " "mouth-chewed sake") is a Japanese word referring to a kind of saliva alcohol in which someone, ideally a virginal girl, chews rice and then spits the results into a container, which is then left to ferment. Prior to the eighth century, perhaps the most widely made rice wine was so-called overnight sake, or hitoyozake(一夜酒), made by allowing cooked rice or rice gruel to ferment naturally. Kuchikamizake was one type of the earliest sake. Kuchi means "mouth," kami means "to chew," and zake is the rendaku form of "sake." "Kuchikami no sake" is a synonym. It is an opaque whitish color and quite sour. Some islands in Okinawa prefecture held religious rituals involving chewed sake until the 1930s.

Kuchikamizake is referenced in the 2016 movie Your Name where the female protagonist (Mitsuha Miyamizu) chews the rice for producing sake during a ritual.


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