Similarities between cauim and sake

Luiz Pagano visited Brazilian indigenous tribes to search the cauim / above - Yasutaka Daimon explains relationship of the sake to Japanese religions

The latest research on the Cauim and how this beverage could be produced on a large scale, with high quality standard, generated a number of difficulties, which oddly enough, the only obtained solution was found by researching the old methods of sake of production.

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The sake and cauim has much in common, almost two thousand years ago, the Japanese believed that sake could only be produced if the rice were pre-chewed by virgins, known as bijinshu or 美人酒 or ʺbeatiful women of sake”, the same happens in Brazil, tribes of almost all indigenous ethnic groups have virgins who chew manioc (sort of Brazilian cassava) and spit in a pot so that can ferment.

Actually, the alcoholic fermentation only occurs when fungi transform sugars into alcohol, rice as much as cassava contains no sugar in natura, so they are not ready for fermentation, so chewing, not necessarily by virgins, becomes necessary, human saliva contains an enzyme called amylases, which breaks down starch molecules into sugar.

Indian tribes producing cauim compared to ancient Japanese people producing sake

Japanese people drank saké even before their first contact with China. The Kojiki (古事記), "Records of Ancient Matters"  written during the Nara period (710‐94) suggests that the first saké in Japan was called Kuchikami no sake, (口噛みの酒) or chewing‐in‐the mouth sake.ʺ

Other countries produce starch wines around the world, Chicha made from corn in Central America, the Cheongju a type of rice wine of Korea and Hariya also made out of rice in India.

It is well known that long before the arrival of Europeans, people coming from Asia were already living in the Americas. The Zuni tribe has left perplexed anthropologists with their language, they speak a language so similar to the Japanese that could hardly be seen as coincidence.

Some similar words as for example; To be Inside in Japanese is 'uchi', in Zuni is also 'Uchi', the word used in Japanese for Yes is 'Hai' for both languages, and thus continues for many other words. Both Zuni and Japanese use the verb as the last word of a sentence, a feature only 45% of languages share. This might not seem like much, but the Zuni language is very different in this than other languages around them.

Above - A Zuni rosette, below - Imperial Seal Japan - See how face painting resembles the Japanese kabuki masks

Davis; Nancy Yaw; "The Zuni Enigma," NEARA Journal, 27:39, Summer/Fall 1993. NEARA = New England Antiquities Research Association.

My research on the production of cauim, which began by the chewing process, and went to the use of synthetic amylase and inevitably led me to use fungi, technique used in Japan and in Brazil by producer tiquira from the Brazilian states of Piaui and Maranhão.

In a methodical manner I was taken to visit factories in Piauí, Maranhão and finally in Japan, where I had an illuminating insight.

I’m graduated in international business, I wanted to know the culture of the peoples around the world, after the initial frustration in financial market, I’ve found in alcoholic beverages the perfect vehicle to become intimate to cultural knowledge. An alcoholic beverage goes far beyond mere fluid that make us drunk, they are closely related to the human soul.

Take a Burgundy wine and understand the spirit of its people, the wine is closely linked to the Catholic religion, is an essential part of the Eucharistic and thus, vines were tested in churches in different parts around the globe, creating wines that expresses in better or worse forms, in the various terroires all around the world.

Luiz Pagano drinking in a calabash - to drink cauim and/or its variations the Indigenous peoples hold the bowl with both hands, in contemplative gesture as Japanese people does.

The same goes for the sake, which is closely related the Shinto and Buddhist religions in Japan.

The traditional religious beliefs of the Japanese people, in common with most of Brazil's indigenous peoples, are a based upon a mixture of respect for the abundance of nature, a fear of natural disasters, and respect for ancestors. The concept of god in Japan is not that of an omnipotent creator of all things like we believe in occident.

According to Daimon Yasutaka, sixth-generation Japanese sake brewer, owner of Daimon Brewery, producer of Mukune Junmai Ginjo and Tozai Honjozo and Nigorion, head of Japanese Sake Export Association (SEA) the “Naorai”, the act of first offer food and drink to the gods is related to yearly festivals, called "matsuri" in Japan (very similar ideas are found in Brazilian indigenous tribes).

Luiz Pagano trip to Japan to research koji - to the right - Luiz Pagano asking for blessings in a Buddhist temple
for Cauim project

All this rich spiritual involvement that I noticed with the trip, along with the huge accumulated knowledge for hundreds of years of the Japanese people, made me realize that the different varieties of Koji (麹 菌 Koji-kin, fungi used to replace the saliva of virgins) together with multiple production characteristics that go far beyond the simple breakdown of starch to obtain the alcohol, (different types of koji also has the property to break down proteins and lipids, offering multiple options), reaching an infinite range of flavors of options that only the spirit of an artist is able to conceive.

Behold! A new world of flavors is about to present itself when the first bottles of cauim start moving out of several Brazilian producers.

Capybaras mobilized to save Brazilian rivers

The Capybara is an ambassador of nature, the dare to arrive to the Brazilian cities and to swim in its heavy polluted rivers. Capivara Parade was created in 2008 by Luiz Pagano, with the purpose of calling public attention to the indifference that public administrators have with Brazilian waters.

Last May 23 in the city of Curitiba-Brazil, a Capybara Parade entitled 'Capi Parade' was launched in the same format of Pascal Knapp’s CowParade, at Palladium Shopping Center, "The capybara is a symbol of Curitiba, besides being an extremely adaptable animal is often found in man-altered environments," says marketing manager Palladium, Maria Aparecida de Oliveira, who decided to show 8 capybaras in allusion to the eighth anniversary inauguration of the mall.

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According to Luiz Pagano, creator of 'Capybara Parade movement', public mobilization that lead to decontamination of rivers in other cities of the world, such as the River Thames in London and the Han River in South Korea, has not happened in Brazil, 'Capybara Parade' was created in 2008, with the purpose of calling public attention to the indifference that public administrators have towards Brazilian waters.

After the incident in which a dam holding back water from an iron ore burst near Mariana contaminate lots of rivers in the state of Minas Gerais, and a few months left to the opening of Olympics games, with the waters of the bay of Guanabara completely filthy, Brazilian authorities really shows the total ineptitude with regard to the basic care that the rivers and lakes of almost every Brazilian cities should have.

And it is in this scenario that the capybara surges as a hero. The world's largest rodent that lives in the Brazilian forests boldly appears swimming in rivers highly polluted cities of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro and walking in groups along its banks.

“The Capybara is an ambassador of nature, dare to arrive in the cities and to swim in the rivers and lakes that we degrade, they seem to show us as a protest, that the rivers of our cities are no latrines, but spaces for living and beauty” says Luiz Pagano.

The exhibition at Palladium Mall in Curitiba, which began on May 23, goes up to June 5. On 4 and 5 June, the children who pass through the mall can paint mini plaster capybaras. "The intention of the Palladium is to aware the children about the preservation of nature, as well as providing a playful experience of painting," adds marketing manager.

Concept artist Luiz Pagano at the opening of 'Capi Parade', promoted by Palladium Mall - the animal is also symbol of the city of Curitiba, one of the most sustainable cities in Brazil

To celebrate the World Environment Day, from 6 to 12 June. the ‘Capi Parade’ leaves in flock to the itinerant exhibition in various touristic sights of Curitiba, at the end of the action, the pieces will be donated and auctioned by the auctioneer Helcio Kronberg. The value fetched from the auction, the auctioneer's commission and the work of artists are donations and will be reversed in blankets to the campaign 'Donate Heat', of Curitiba performed by the Pro-Citizenship Institute and the Social Action Foundation ( FAS).

The event also includes the participations Brazilian celebrities, the 'Capybara Bi-articulated' had artistic intervention of architect and urban planner Jaime Lerner, in reference to the bus created by him, another wears a jersey of Brazilian soccer selection that will be autographed by Pelé, the king of football, after the auction, with a dedication to the winning bidder.