[A Moment's Breath] Do not be deceived by Edo's "drinkable IV drip." The sweet poison and truth behind summer amazake
What the Edo commoners bought for eight mon was not mere nutritional replenishment. It was the madness of drinking piping hot amazake amidst the sweat and heat of midsummer.
Honestly, I am sick of the media's clichés about amazake being a summer kigo or a "drinkable IV drip." Everyone and their dog worships it like holy water, praising its "gentle sweetness from rice koji" and "prevention of summer fatigue," but why don't you all calm down for a second? Gulping down thick, sweet sludge in the middle of a scorching heatwave is not the act of a sane person. Yet, the fact that Edo townspeople would hand eight mon to a street vendor and gulp it down while sweat poured from their bodies strangely stirs my soul.
Edo-era amazake is not some lukewarm "healthy organic beverage" that modern people like to pretend it is. In an age without air conditioning or ice, it was a "poison" packed with false comfort and sheer stubbornness, meant to rouse a body rotting in the sweltering heat of a tenement house. You force the calories of fermented rice into a stomach that is about to succumb to the heat. You sweat to lower your body temperature and use glucose to forcibly awaken your brain. There is no kindness there, only the tenacity to survive. It is said that in Kyoto and Osaka, it was sold only on summer nights, and that cup drunk in the darkness must have tasted truly lewd and mysterious.
What about us today? We sit in air-conditioned rooms, squeezing lemon into chilled amazake and blathering about how "refreshing and easy to drink" it is. We think we're sophisticated by adding ginger, but there is no way such an elegant way of drinking can catch up to the wildness of the Edo people. The essence of amazake is the overwhelming concentration produced by rice and koji, and the unmistakable scent of fermentation. You spout flowery phrases about natural sweetness without sugar, but that is nothing more than a raw lump of sugar created by the breakdown of rice starch. The overwhelming sweetness that clings to the tongue mercilessly pierces a body that is already exhausted.
If you are going to make it yourself, do not be satisfied with the weak process of just pressing the keep-warm button on a rice cooker and leaving it alone. Let the koji mold exhaust its life in the exquisite temperature range of 55 to 60 degrees Celsius, and spend eight hours slowly transforming the rice into a sweetness that is on the verge of decay. The time spent staring at that process is the preparation for consuming the poison of amazake. Drinking it chilled is one way to enjoy it, but if you really want to beat the heat, dare to gulp it down while it's still hot in a kitchen that feels like a steam bath. Along with the sweat pouring from your body, the senses dulled by your lukewarm daily life should be blown away.
It is a specific remedy for modern people who rely on the phrase "drinkable IV drip" and feel as if they have become healthy. Amazake is a potent drug meant to shake your stomach and drag out the feeling of being alive.
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