Editing Sake (section)

=== Until the Kamakura period ===
The origin of sake is unclear; however, the method of fermenting rice into alcohol spread to Japan from China around 500BCE.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-01-07 |title=The History of Japanese Sake {{!}} JSS |url=https://japansake.or.jp/sake/en/basic/japanese-sake-history/ |access-date=2022-09-01 |website=Japan Sake and Shochu Makers Association {{!}} JSS |language=ja}}</ref> The earliest reference to the use of alcohol in Japan is recorded in the ''[[Book of Wei]]'' in the ''[[Records of the Three Kingdoms]]''. This 3rd-century Chinese text speaks of Japanese drinking and dancing.<ref name="EB">{{Cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/sake|title=sake {{!}} alcoholic beverage|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Britannica|access-date=2017-03-09|language=en}}</ref>

{{nihongo|Alcoholic beverages|酒|sake}} are mentioned several times in the {{Lang|ja-latn|[[Kojiki]]}}, Japan's first written history, which was compiled in 712. Bamforth (2005) places the probable origin of true sake (which is made from rice, water, and {{Nihongo3|''[[Aspergillus oryzae]]''|麹|[[Kōji (food)|Kōji]]}}) in the [[Nara period]] (710–794).<ref name="ivan1964">{{cite book |last=Morris |first=Ivan |year=1964 |title=The World of the Shining Prince: Court Life in Ancient Japan|url=https://archive.org/details/worldofshining00morr |url-access=registration |publisher=New York: Knopf }}</ref> The fermented food fungi traditionally used for making alcoholic beverages in China and Korea for a long time were fungi belonging to ''[[Rhizopus]]'' and ''[[Mucor]]'', whereas in Japan, except in the early days, the fermented food fungus used for sake brewing was ''Aspergillus oryzae''.<ref name="jabba">{{cite web|url=https://katosei.jsbba.or.jp/view_html.php?aid=366|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210204012158/https://katosei.jsbba.or.jp/view_html.php?aid=366|script-title=ja:国際的に認知される日本の国菌|language=ja|publisher=Japan Society for Bioscience, Biotechnology, and Agrochemistry|author=Eiji Ichishima|date=20 March 2015|archive-date=4 February 2021}}</ref><ref name="sbj2012">{{cite web|url=https://www.sbj.or.jp/wp-content/uploads/file/sbj/9007/9007_yomoyama_1.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221031014115/https://www.sbj.or.jp/wp-content/uploads/file/sbj/9007/9007_yomoyama_1.pdf|script-title=ja:麹菌物語
|language=ja|publisher=The Society for Biotechnology, Japan|author=Katsuhiko Kitamoto|page=424|date=|archive-date=31 October 2022}}</ref><ref name="matsushima210122">{{cite web|url=https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jbrewsocjapan/109/9/109_643/_pdf/-char/ja|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220621222449/https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jbrewsocjapan/109/9/109_643/_pdf/-char/ja|author=Kenichiro Matsushima|script-title=ja:醤油づくりと麹菌の利用ー今までとこれからー|page=643|language=ja|archive-date=21 June 2022}}</ref> Some scholars believe the Japanese domesticated the mutated, detoxified ''[[Aspergillus flavus]]'' to give rise to ''Aspergillus oryzae''.<ref name="sbj2012"/><ref name="sys131122">{{cite web|url=http://www.yeast.umin.jp/yeast-symposium21/abstract21-21.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221113184903/http://www.yeast.umin.jp/yeast-symposium21/abstract21-21.pdf|script-title=ja:家畜化された微生物、麹菌 その分子細胞生物学的解析から見えてきたこと|page=2|author=Katsuhiko Kitamoto|language=ja|publisher=The Society of Yeast Scientists.|archive-date=13 November 2022}}</ref><ref name="dj101122">{{cite web|url=https://discoverjapan-web.com/article/65729|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221110122008/https://discoverjapan-web.com/article/65729|script-title=ja:日本の発酵技術と歴史|language=ja|publisher=Discover Japan Inc.|author=Kiyoko Hayashi|date=19 July 2021|archive-date=10 November 2022}}</ref>

In the [[Heian period]] (794–1185), sake was used for religious ceremonies, court festivals, and drinking games.<ref name="ivan1964"/> Sake production was a government monopoly for a long time, but in the 10th century, [[Buddhist temples in Japan|Buddhist temples]] and [[Shinto shrine|Shinto shrines]] began to brew sake, and they became the main centers of production for the next 500 years.