Photo/Illutration Tsugaru and Rasho are produced in Goshogawara, Aomori Prefecture, and they re-create the taste of an apple wine featured in Osamu Dazai's novel. (Shuichi Doi)

GOSHOGAWARA, Aomori Prefecture--Apple growers created an apple wine similar to what is featured in "Tsugaru" by Osamu Dazai (1909-1948), considered one of Japan's foremost novelists of the 20th century, who hailed from here. 

"I hope people enjoy the wine and feel the ambience of the novel here," said project leader Akinaga Toki. "I also hope it revitalizes apple farmers and the local community."

With no documents left explaining how to make it or how it tastes, they interviewed elders, historians and other experts to reproduce the fabled wine.

Fermented with sake yeast and having an alcohol content of 7 percent, the semi-sparkling wine with a sour and dry taste is also named Tsugaru.

After working in the Tokyo metropolitan area, Toki, 41, returned to Goshogawara in 2019 to take over his father's apple-growing business.

Last summer, he learned that the prefectural government's Seihoku Regional Administration Bureau was soliciting measures to revitalize the Oku-Tsugaru region.

Toki recalled the apple wine mentioned in "Tsugaru," and worked with his fellow farmers to put together a project to re-create the liquor.

The team launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise funds for the project, drawing interest from Dazai fans.

However, the novel was written during the war, and no documents related to the apple wine were available.

Toki and other members interviewed those in their 90s, local historians and Dazai Museum officials, along with members of the Aomori Apple Association, the Hirosaki Industrial Research Institute and other organizations, to study the historical background, production method, circumstances surrounding apple cultivation and other factors.

They discovered that sake brewers used apples to make wine after rice and other ingredients became difficult to find during the war.

They also learned that a sour-tasting apple variety called Kokko had been more popular at the time in the prefecture.

The team obtained a box of Kokko apples (20 kilograms) and used Fuji, Kogyoku and other cultivars to supplement the production.

The team used sake yeast for fermentation.

They also produced Rasho, made with the same ingredients but fermented with wine yeast in tribute to Dazai, who was a wine lover.

Tsugaru and Rasho will be given to supporters of the crowdfunding campaign.

Priced at 1,350 yen ($11), including tax, per bottle, 200 bottles for each wine will be sold at a farm stand near the Dazai Museum from April 29.

"Tsugaru" was published after Dazai traveled to his hometown in 1944 to write about the area and his former acquaintances.

Apple wine is repeatedly mentioned in the novel.

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