developed in which a small amount of distilled alcohol (shōchū) was added to the mash to make it more aromatic and lighter in taste, while at the same preventing deterioration in quality. This originates from the distilled alcohol addition used in modern sake brewing. The Nada-Gogō area in Hyōgo Prefecture, the largest producer of modern sake, was formed during this period. When the population of Edo, modern-day Tokyo, began to grow rapidly in the early 1600s, brewers who made sake in inland areas such as Fushimi, Itami, and Ikeda moved to the Nada-Gogō area on the coast, where the weather and water quality were perfect for brewing sake and convenient for shipping it to Edo. In the Genroku era, when the culture of the chōnin class, the common people, prospered, the consumption of sake increased rapidly, and large quantities of taruzake (樽酒) were shipped to Edo. 80% of the sake drunk in Edo during this period was from Nada-Gogō. Many of today's major sake producers, including Hakutsuru (ja:白鶴), Ōzeki (ja:大関), Niihonsakari (:ja:日本盛), Kikumasamune (ja:菊正宗), Kenbishi (ja:剣菱) and Sawanotsuru, are breweries in Nada-Gogō. During this period, frequent natural disasters and bad weather caused rice shortages, and the Tokugawa shogunate issued sake brewing restrictions 61 times. In the early Edo period, there was a sake brewing technique called () that was optimized for each season. In 1667, the technique of () for making sake in winter was improved, and in 1673, when the Tokugawa shogunate banned brewing other than kanzukuri because of a shortage of rice, the technique of sake brewing in the four seasons ceased, and it became common to make sake only in winter until industrial technology began to develop in the 20th century. During this period, aged for three, five, or nine years, () was a luxury, but its deliciousness was known to the common people. In the 18th century, Engelbert Kaempfer and Isaac Titsingh published accounts identifying sake as a popular alcoholic beverage in Japan, but Titsingh was the first to try to explain and describe the process of sake brewing. The work of both writers was widely disseminated throughout Europe at the beginning of the 19th century. From the Meiji era to the early Shōwa era Starting around the beginning of the Meiji era (1868－1912), the technique for making sake began to develop rapidly. Breeding was actively carried out in various parts of Japan to produce sake