Philip Harper

PHILIP HARPER came to Japan in 1988 as a participant in a Ministry of Education program that placed native English speakers in public schools. In the course of three years' teaching, he contracted sake fever after encountering premium ginjo sake for the first time. Fascinated by the complexity of flavors of the beverage, and by the traditions of the sake world, he started working nights in a specialist sake bar. In 1991, he joined the brewing staff of Ume no Yado , a small, traditional brewery...See more

PHILIP HARPER came to Japan in 1988 as a participant in a Ministry of Education program that placed native English speakers in public schools. In the course of three years' teaching, he contracted sake fever after encountering premium ginjo sake for the first time. Fascinated by the complexity of flavors of the beverage, and by the traditions of the sake world, he started working nights in a specialist sake bar. In 1991, he joined the brewing staff of Ume no Yado , a small, traditional brewery in Nara Prefecture. Since then, he has spent every winter working from before dawn until after dusk (and during peak periods long into the night) in the centuries-old pattern of brewery life, apparently the only non-Japanese member of this insular industry. In the off season, Harper resumes his sampling of the offerings of Japan's seventeen hundred breweries, and periodically writes or lectures on sake. His articles have appeared in the Mainichi Daily News , Kansai Time Out , and the Japanese tea-ceremony magazine Tanko , among other publications. See less