Philip Harper (sake Brewer) - Early Life and Career

Early Life and Career

Philip Harper was born in 1967 in Birmingham and was raised in Cornwall County, England, United Kingdom. In 1988, Harper earned a Bachelor's degree in English Literature at Oxford University. After graduation, he moved to Osaka, Japan to participate in the Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme (JET) where he taught English in public junior and high schools for two years. Harper, already a fan of European alcohol, was introduced to Japanese sake by his teaching colleagues at a party. He then joined a sake drinking club and frequented taverns in the Osaka area.

After completing his two-year contract with the JET program, Harper opted to stay in Japan while working days at an English conversation school and nights at a local tavern. In 1991 he was introduced to Ume no Yado, a traditional Japanese sake brewery in a rural town within Nara Prefecture. There Harper worked as a general laborer. He spent his first year milling, machine-polishing, and bagging brown rice. He learned how to steam the rice in his second year. By his third year, he was put in charge of cultivating koji mold which allows the rice to ferment into sake. During the next ten years, Harper would spend every day during the sake brewing season - October through April - working at Ume no Yado. The owner of the brewery enrolled Harper in sake brewing classes and gave him material to study to improve his sake-making knowledge. Harper married a Japanese woman shortly after he began his work at the brewery. His marriage ceremony was his only day off during his ten-year employment at Ume no Yado.

Harper published his first book in 1998 entitled The Insider's Guide to Sake. The book drew on his years of experience in consuming and making sake. The small book, which by 2008 had sold over 20,000 copies, contains information about various types of sake including nigori, dai-ginjo, ginjo, and hon-jouzu. The book is targeted at novice-level overseas enjoyers of sake and thus contains many pictures and labels of the various drinks.