Mansouan: The Secret Awamori Cellar and Playground to Learn Handcrafts

Hidden in the forest in Tenniya district, Nago, there is a shop named Mansouan (蔓草庵). Seibin-san, who is a former-director of the museum of Nago-city, built the shop literally by himself. Inside the shop is a HUGE collection of bottles of awamori, the Okinawan traditional rice liquor.

Home-aged awamori, called ku-su (古酒), is a traditional way to enjoy awamori long term and people "grow" awamori home in the vase for years and years and from generation to generation, with a specific manner. Seibin-san is an expert of the technique, and organizes workshops to share his knowledge of the art of aging awamori.

Mansouan website: http://ameblo.jp/mansouan/

If you're interested in lifestyle in Okinawa, check out my article about home-stay (Minpaku) in Okinawa and other photos.

If you're interested in Japanese liquor, check out my article about sake brewery (Sakagura) visit in Japan.

The wall of bottles of Awamori. According to him, there are 3K+ bottles that he collected over 30 years... This is impressive.

And these are the vases for aging awamori.

The label says this batch is from 1999... 

He also teaches Okinawan handcrafts using the local grasses.