Once taboo, more Japanese women are brewing sake

Associated Press

OKAYA, Japan (AP) — Mie Takahashi is one of a small group of female toji, or master Japanese sake brewers. Only 33 female toji are registered in Japan’s Toji Guild Association out of more than a thousand breweries nationwide. That’s more than several decades ago. Women were largely excluded from sake production until after World War II. Sake making has a history of over a thousand years, with strong roots in Japan’s traditional Shinto religion. But when the liquor began to be mass produced during the Edo period, from 1603 until 1868, an unspoken rule barring women from breweries emerged.