TOKYO -- Ninety-year-old Naohiko Noguchi has retired three times. But each time, he has returned to brewing sake, the craft to which he has devoted himself for over seven decades, at the urging of his fans.
Called "the god of sake brewing," Noguchi has vowed to keep making sake until his last day on Earth. He is passionate about creating a sake the world can appreciate at Noguchi Naohiko Sake Institute, a brewery he founded in 2017 in Komatsu, in west-central Japan's Ishikawa prefecture. He also poured a lot of energy into training toji master brewers. "I am trying to become a role model for how to take on new challenges, while preserving the traditions" of sake-making, he says.
