Sake brewed with speaker vibrations: Onkyo launches it with an Akita brewery

Playing a local song to the fermenting moromi

The new product is “Dainogawa Tenka Onkyo Kaboshu Junmai Ginjo Nama Genshu”. It was made by Dainogawa Co., Ltd., whose brewery stands in Omori, Yokote, in Akita Prefecture on the Sea of Japan side of the Tohoku region. The brewery began making sake in 1914 and, from the 2019 brewing year, switched to “junmai” brewing, making all of its sake from just rice and rice koji. It has also stopped using tanks for storage and keeps everything in bottles. For this sake, music was played through speakers to the fermenting moromi (the fermenting mixture of steamed rice, koji, yeast and water). The song is “Shimotsuki Kagura”, the brewery’s theme song, written by Akita singer-songwriter Satoko Kuribayashi. Omori, where the brewery is located, is known as the home of Shimotsuki Kagura, a form of kagura that has been designated a nationally important intangible folk cultural property. According to the brewery, yeast raised on this gentle song produced a sake with a soft, mellow flavour.

The only rice used is Gohyakumangoku, a variety well suited to sake brewing. The rice polishing ratio is 60%, meaning 40% of the outside of the brown rice has been milled away. Junmai ginjo is a higher grade made from well-polished rice. This sake is an unfiltered nama genshu, so it has not been filtered, pasteurised or diluted with water. It is 15% ABV and comes in a 720 ml bottle.

Bringing audio “vibration” technology to brewing

Osaka-based Onkyo Corporation applies the “sound” and “vibration” technology it has developed through speaker design to the food sector. It calls this initiative “Matured by Onkyo”, and the name also appears on the label of this sake. The company obtained two related patents in 2025. By optimising the vibration conditions to suit the material and the state of fermentation, and by applying vibration across a wide range of frequencies including high-resolution components, it says it can improve the reproducibility of quality and reduce variation.

On the research side, it has been working with the Department of Fermentation Science at Tokyo University of Agriculture since 2020, investigating how vibration and sound affect yeast growth, aroma compounds and organic acids. With Kanazawa Institute of Technology, it has also confirmed the possibility that vibration can make the starch in rice, whose quality has declined in extreme heat, easier to dissolve. The company plans to extend the approach to wine, fermented foods and cosmetics. However, claims about the effect on flavour are, for now, the company’s own explanation.

Enjoying it from Europe

The announcement does not mention overseas sales. However, “Shimotsuki Kagura”, the song the brewery played to its yeast, can be heard by anyone on Dainogawa’s website. The brewery suggests enjoying the sake and the song together. Research into using acoustic vibration in the ageing and fermentation of wine may also interest readers in Europe’s wine regions. If you come across a sake labelled “Matured by Onkyo” in future, you might compare it with the same brewery’s ordinary junmai ginjo. Nama genshu must always be stored in the fridge, and serving it chilled in a wine glass makes it easier to appreciate the aroma.