Mokkiri, meaning ‘filled to the brim’, is how you’ll often see a serving of sake being drunk in a Japanese izakaya.
Not only is it meaningful and practical, it’s also (let’s be honest) pretty fun. After all, any ritual assigned to a kind of drinking, whether it’s jamming a piece of lemon into a Corona or licking salt from your hand before a shot of tequila, turns any drink into something more memorable.
All one needs to get their mokkiri on is their wooden ‘masu’ box, a correspondingly-sized glass, and a good bottle of sake. The custom can actually be traced all the way back to the Edo era, when sake was sold by volume from barrels and measured out using the masu box, filled until level with the top.
Spiritually, the act has pleasant connotations, because something that is overflowing means abundance and prosperity. Who would’ve thought a simple drink could carry such philosophical weight!
The standard, sophisticated way to drink mokkiri sake is to leave the glass where it sits, lean in to take a sip, and (once the level has dropped enough) lift the glass to drink the rest. When drinking directly from the masu (and hey, no one is going to blame you - in fact we at zenpunk actively encourage it), support the bottom with four fingers (excluding the thumb) and place your thumb along the rim. Proper etiquette dictates placing your lower lip against the flat section of the rim rather than the corner and sipping quietly.
All in all, it’s a custom that has history, has its own discipline and rules, and has deep philosophical significance.
Perhaps the real answer to why drink this way is simply “why not?”