Former TBS female announcer, who herself was affected by the Noto Earthquake, has special feelings about the “Sake ‘Recovery Bottle'” designed by her.

A tiger painted in deep blue tones and a lion staring at you with a sharp gaze.

Both of these unique designs were created for sake labels. Kaede Ito, 30, a former announcer for TBS and a painter, devised these designs. The sake designed on the labels are from 18 breweries of the Toyama Prefecture Sake Brewers Association, which was hit by the Noto Peninsula earthquake. Ms. Ito shared her special feelings about the sake bottles from the disaster area (comments below by Ms. Ito).

Ms. Ito, who joined TBS in April 2004 as a female announcer after graduating from Rikkyo University’s Faculty of Letters, left the company in February 2009.

I have been interested in drawing pictures since I was a child,” she said. When I was in college, I took a correspondence test and qualified as a portrait artist. The turning point came in the fall of 2006. I worked as an assistant on Masahiro Nakai’s variety show and was asked to improvise portraits of celebrities and ordinary people who consulted with me. I decided that if I was going to do it, I would do it right, so I started studying sketching at home every day. From then on, I became more and more addicted to the joy of drawing.

An American taught him the charm of sake

After leaving TBS, he moved to Germany, where he had many opportunities to come into contact with classical paintings on a daily basis. In Germany, he had an unexpected encounter with sake.

An American woman who had become a good friend of mine was running a sake boutique in Berlin. She had studied sake in great detail, from its history to how it is made. She understood it much better than I did as a Japanese. I was so embarrassed by that, and it was the beginning of my discovery of the appeal of sake.

Ms. Ito will return to Japan temporarily at the end of last year to hold a solo exhibition in Ginza, Tokyo.

I have always wished there was a space where I could appreciate art while drinking sake. I enjoy art in my own private time. I consulted with the Masuda Sake Brewery in my hometown of Toyama Prefecture, which is run by a relative of senior TBS announcer Erina Masuda. It was shortly after that. A major earthquake hit the Noto Peninsula ……”

Mr. Ito himself experienced a major quake at his home in Toyama Prefecture. The walls of his parents’ house cracked and he spent anxious days. When he called the Masuda Sake Brewery, which had been a great help to him, he was told that the brewery and other facilities had been damaged.

I had been thinking about what I could do to help the affected areas. After talking with the Masuda Sake Brewery, we came up with the Toyama Sake Brewers Association’s “Reconstruction Bottle” label production project.

Mr. Ito thought of colors and themes to match the taste and worldview of the sake. Many of the sake labels she designed depict tigers, lions, and other “beasts of prey,” as mentioned at the beginning of this article. Ito had her own special feelings about the design.

I had a lot of troubles in Germany, such as fictitious bills,” she said. I painted animals such as tigers when I was in such a tough situation. I created this picture with the thoughts of ‘I don’t want to be defeated’ and ‘I want to be strong. I hope that people in the affected areas, who are still suffering, will find hope and be able to drink sake again with laughter. We also hope that more people will learn about the appeal of sake from ……. The label is designed with this wish for recovery in mind.

The “Recovery 2024 Bottle,” designed by Mr. Ito, will go on sale on March 1. All proceeds from the sale of the 22,000 yen per bottle will be donated to the affected areas.