If you love sake…

The email nearly made me cry. It was a blast from the Sake Shop, outlining the tremendous damage to northeastern Japan’s sake breweries from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Warehouses collapsed, tanks toppled, bottling lines broke, fermenting sake was ruined and thousands of bottles of finished sake were lost. Employees at one brewery climbed on top of a refrigerated tank as the tsunami surged around them. Suisen, a brewery in a tiny town that was washed off the map, disappeared, along with 11 employees still unaccounted for.

Many of these breweries are generations old. The families live alongside the warehouses, running small operations with longtime employees, milling rice grown around them and pumping pure water from their own wells. Those intact enough to operate face power outages, washed-out roads, muddy wells and possible radiation to water and rice sources.

But that’s not all. This month’s cherry blossom season is bringing a second disaster. All over Japan, somber Japanese are canceling the flower-viewing parties that make this the peak month for sake sales. The Sake Shop was passing along a plea from brewers, but not for donations.

Here’s the fifth-generation maker of Nanbu Bijin, a gentle brew you may have drunk at restaurants around town.

They’re asking us to drink their sake to help them stay in business. In Hawaii, many people already do. Here are some of the best known labels from the Tohoku region:

Dewazakura, maker of the popular Dewasansan — lost power and some product
Nanbu Bijin — damage to warehouse and chimney, brewing interrupted by shortages of gas and oil
Asabiraki (whose junmai ginjo is sitting on my counter) — no damage, but ability to ship severely hampered
Okunomatsu — damage to brewery, equipment and production line, as well as to sake being aged and sake ready for shipping
Ichinokura — Yeast starter tanks toppled, bottled product and empty bottles broken
Hoyo (maker of Manamusume, my favorite junmai. President shown at right at last August’s Joy of Sake) — Home and product damaged

Sake-world.com has a comprehensive list of those affected.

The Sake Shop is holding an all-day tasting of five brews from Tohoku on April 23 at 1461 S. King St. If you don’t want a full bottle, order a glass of one of these labels the next time you’re out for sushi, or check out the list at sake-world.com. There are about 140 breweries in Tohoku, most of which seem to have escaped damage; and a handful closer to Tokyo that did suffer. You’ll find these on the list too.

If you love sake, please raise a glass to their recovery.