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Gekkeikan executives visit Carmen Safeway
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Posted on Jan 19 2006
Managers of Gekkeikan Sake Company, Ltd.—maker of legendary Japanese rice wine Gekkeikan—visited Saipan’s Carmen Safeway supermarket, the exclusive distributor of the product in the Northern Marianas.
Gekkeikan manager Shinyo Tamakoshi and assistant manager Hiroaki Shibahara expressed its gratitude to Carmen Safeway, formerly known as Meitetsu, for over 30 years of distributing Gekkeikan products on the islands.
Tamakoshi and Shibahara met with the supermarket’s general manager, Eli Maravilla, and Carmen Safeway president Frances Borja, expressing satisfaction over the display of Gekkeikan products inside the establishment.
Gekkeikan’s founder, Jiemon Okura, established his sake brewery in Fushimi in 1637. For nearly 400 years, the company has continued to expand, and it now has brewery operations in California.
Sake has long been part of Japanese culture, which has an important place at festivals, ceremonies and rituals.
“Whether imbibed during the vows at a formal wedding ceremony or at a lively festival, sake has customarily symbolized the miracle of nature. Brewed from rice which at one time used as a form of currency in Japan, sake also has represented a sense of abundance and wealth,” the Gekkeikan executives said.
Citing the Japanese proverb—“Sake is the best of all medicines”—the executives also said that Gekkeikan products have good health effects.
“Modern studies now show that, in appropriate amounts, sake can have positive effects on improving cholesterol levels, blood pressure and memory. Furthermore, sake contains amino acids and peptides which can improve skin,” the executives said.
In 2005, Gekkeikan’s sake won the gold medal at the National Sake Competition sponsored by the National Research Institute of Brewing, while the company’s Bizan Gold Schochu got the “Grand Gold Medal” award from Monde Selection in Brussels, Belgium.
