JAPAN: 10-year old Kogoma Niikura becomes youngest certified sake expert in Japanese history

Record ID: 465142

  • Title: JAPAN: 10-year old Kogoma Niikura becomes youngest certified sake expert in Japanese history
  • Date: 16th July 2011
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) 26-YEAR OLD PAINTER MAYUMI KURIHARA SAYING: "At first, I was taken by surprise, but once you get to know her, she's just a normal girl. I really enjoy being with her. She knows so many things, and I think she's such a charming kid."
  • Embargoed: 31st July 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Japan, Japan
  • Country: Japan
  • Topics: Quirky,Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
  • Reuters ID: LVADNRQ1RGJVGRTS2IBJATUOQK6I
  • Story Text: For most 10-year-olds, spending an afternoon sniffing cups of Japanese sake may not sound like a good time.
    Not so for Japan's youngest sake expert Kogoma Niikura, whose birth name is Akane Niikura.
    Niikura passed the Sake Service Institute of Japan's test last September and is now a specialist in matching sake with food.
    "My favorite dish to cook is Japanese style snapper carpaccio. If we assume that the snapper is from the sea off the island of Sado, I recommend a sake called 'Kintsuru' from Sado, which is made from pure rice," Niikura said.
    The sake test itself doesn't require test takers to actually drink alcohol, a problem for Niikura as the legal drinking age is 20 in Japan.
    Instead it tests knowledge about sake, such as history, how to make sake, and how to enjoy it.
    While Niikura has never tasted sake her mother, who is also a sake expert, loves drinking it and Niikura has accompanied her mother to her sake bar almost almost daily since she was born.
    She says that when she was smaller and closer to her mother, she could smell the sake from when her mother sampled different types of the drink.
    She came to associate the smell with her mother and still tags along whenever her mother heads to the sake shop.
    With a 10-year-old not being a common sight in sake stores, shop owner Yukio Oyake was impressed with her interest in the drink.
    "This tiny girl who is a fourth grader, who cannot even taste sake, passed the test. I think it's amazing!" Oyake said.
    Niikura's mother Nozomi, who goes by the name of Goma Niikura, explained that she hoped to help foster a love of Sake in the next generation.
    "I'm doing this because I think people in their 20s don't drink Sake that often anymore. If that's so, I want to train the sense of smell in children from a very young age, and have them take action to have people know more about Sake, and have more opportunities to drink Sake where they live," Goma Niikura said.
    After she finishes school, Niikura helps out her mother at their Sake bar and while customers are often surprised at her knowledge, most enjoy what's selected for them.
    "At first, I was taken by surprise, but once you get to know her, she's just a normal girl. I really enjoy being with her. She knows so many things, and I think she's such a charming kid," said 26-year-old Mayumi Kurihara said after having Niikura choose Sake for her.
    Niikura became famous nationwide when a popular television program introduced her as a 9-year old genius chef and now has offers to star in multiple TV cooking programs and magazines.
    When asked what she wants to become in the future however, Niikura said that she hopes to become a Sake bar owner just like her mother.
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