The Ties That Didn’t Hold — Matsue Beer Hearn “Enmusubeer Stout” x Official HIGE DANdism, “Pretender”

日本語で読む | This is the English version of a bilingual article.

Today’s Pairing

Craft beer: Matsue Beer Hearn “Enmusubeer Stout” — milk stout (Irish style); 5.5% ABV; 16 IBU; pale ale, Pilsner, caramel and roasted malts (from the UK and Germany); lactose as an adjunct; Magnum hops / Shimane Beer Co., Ltd. (509-1 Kuroda-cho, Matsue City, Shimane Prefecture, inside the Matsue Horikawa Jibiiru-kan)
Official site: https://www.shimane-beer.co.jp/
Music: “Pretender” by Official HIGE DANdism, 2019 / Words and music by Satoshi Fujihara
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQ8WlA2GXbk

▶ If the player above doesn’t play, open it on YouTube

The Story of the Brewery

Matsue Beer Hearn 'Enmusubeer Stout' from Shimane
Shimane Beer Co., Ltd. brews inside the Matsue Horikawa Jibiiru-kan, a building that stands beside the moat of Matsue Castle. According to the company profile on its official site, the firm was established in October 1996 and began production in 1999. It has eight employees, and its president is Manabu Yano. The brewery’s own beer page puts it this way: “in 1999, in April, a beer brewery was born in Matsue — a town that has kept its traditions while reaching for what is new.” The brewing water comes from springs in the Kitayama range.

The same page states plainly what the brewery is after. Not an imitation of foreign beer, but “a beer loved locally, a beer local people call good” and “a beer loved in Japan, a beer Japanese people call good.” As for the name: according to the official site, “Beer Hearn” is borrowed from Lafcadio Hearn — the Meiji-era writer known in Matsue by the affectionate name “Hearn-sensei.” The site says the name carries the wish that people around the world might come to know “the food, the culture and the people of Shimane, perhaps the least famous place in Japan.” The line at the top of the site reads: “Beer that ties the knot.”

Of this particular beer, the official site says: “A dark beer that originated in Ireland. The toasty character of roasted malt, and a mild mouthfeel that comes from the traditional use of lactose. We also recommend it as a half-and-half with our Pilsner.” The specification listed in the brewery’s own online shop gives the style as milk stout (Irish style), 5.5% ABV, 16 IBU, colour 90 EBC (jet black), Magnum hops, lactose as the adjunct. The product name itself reads “Not bitter! Roasted, mild dark beer.” For comparison, the same brewery’s pale ale is 23 IBU — so on paper this black beer is the less bitter of the two. That gap, between how heavy it looks and how light it lands, is the whole point of it. The site also carries an allergy notice, since lactose is present.

The Story of the Land

According to the chronology published by the Lafcadio Hearn Memorial Museum, Hearn was born on June 27, 1850, on the Greek island of Lefkada. His father Charles was an army surgeon from Ireland; his mother Rosa came from the Greek island of Kythira. In August 1852, when he was two, mother and son moved to Dublin, where his father’s family lived. When he was four his father left for the Crimean War and his mother returned to Kythira; at seven, his parents divorced. At sixteen he lost the sight in his left eye in an accident during play; at seventeen he had to leave school when the money ran out; at nineteen he boarded an emigrant ship alone for America.

By way of New Orleans and the Caribbean island of Martinique, Hearn set foot in Japan in April 1890, aged thirty-nine. That August he took up a post in Matsue as an English teacher at the Shimane Prefectural Ordinary Middle School. He stayed about a year and three months, leaving in November 1891 for the Fifth Higher Middle School in Kumamoto. In 1896 he formally married Setsu Koizumi, the daughter of a Matsue samurai family, and naturalised as a Japanese citizen, taking his wife’s surname to become Yakumo Koizumi. He died of a heart attack on September 26, 1904, at fifty-four.

Now back to the beer. A dark beer that originated in Ireland, brewed by a brewery named after a man raised in Ireland, and sold under an Izumo word meaning “tying bonds.” It looks like a pile-up of coincidences, but the word carries real weight here. According to the multilingual commentary database published by Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, the tenth month of the lunar calendar is called Kannazuki, “the month without gods,” across most of Japan — but in the Izumo region it is Kamiarizuki, “the month with gods.” In that month, the myriad deities of Japan gather in Izumo and hold a council about people’s relationships for the coming year. The council is called kamihakari, and what it decides is ties between people. In a land where a council on bonds convenes every year, naming a beer “Enmusubeer” reaches a little deeper than wordplay.

The Story of the Song

Official HIGE DANdism is a four-piece band formed in 2012, according to its official profile. As quoted from that profile on the Tottori prefectural website, the members are graduates of Shimane University and Matsue College, and the band began its activity in the San’in region. The line-up is Satoshi Fujihara (vocals, piano), Daisuke Ozasa (guitar), Makoto Narazaki (bass, saxophone) and Masaki Matsuura (drums). They debuted in April 2015 with the mini-album Love to Peace wa Kimi no Naka, and made their major-label debut in April 2018 with the single “No Doubt.”

“Pretender” was released on May 15, 2019 as their second single, with a digital release preceding it on April 17 of the same year. Fujihara wrote the words and music; the band arranged it. It was the theme song for the film Confidence Man JP: Romance, and appears on the album Traveler. It reached No. 1 on the Billboard JAPAN Hot 100 and holds a Diamond streaming certification from the Recording Industry Association of Japan. What it sings about is the state of carrying feelings for someone while already knowing those feelings will not meet theirs in the same shape. The song ends without ever letting go of the thought of how it might have gone, had they met some other way.

Why This Pairing

A band out of the land that ties bonds, whose best-known song is about a bond that didn’t hold. That single fact is where this pairing started. Shimane is known as the place where ties are made, but the word for ties doesn’t only count the ones that held. The ones that didn’t are ties as well. Perhaps only someone who has counted the ones that came apart can feel the full weight of the one that lasted.

The first half of Hearn’s life was a run of ties that didn’t hold. At two he left the island he was born on; at four he lost his father, and soon after his mother; at seven his parents divorced; at seventeen he left school; at nineteen he crossed an ocean alone. His first marriage, in Cincinnati, broke down. Greece, Ireland, England, France, America, the Caribbean. Where he finally washed up was Japan, and he spent only a year and three months in Matsue. Even so, he took the surname of a person he met in that town and carried it for the rest of his life. For a man whose early life kept unravelling, that was the one thread that held.

And this beer is black without being bitter. Roasted malt brings a burnt note, and the lactose rounds off its edge. At 16 IBU it is less bitter than the brewery’s own pale ale: the heaviest-looking beer in the line-up is the softest on the tongue. Ties that didn’t hold end up in a similar shape, given time. They don’t disappear, and they don’t fade in colour. They simply stop being as bitter as they were at first. That is the glass I wanted for this one.

Where to Find This Beer

The Rakuten Ichiba link below is an affiliate link.

Brewery official site：https://www.shimane-beer.co.jp/
Buy on Rakuten Ichiba: View the product page (350ml, ¥3,828)

These are Japanese storefronts. If you are visiting the brewery, drinking it fresh at their own taproom is by far the best option.

🌡️ How to serve it: Serve at about 8–10°C. Chill it much harder than that and both the toasty malt and the softness from the lactose close up. For the glass, use a nonic pint that doesn’t taper at the rim, or a tulip that holds the aroma. Pour to raise a proper head — it takes a further edge off the burnt note. The brewery itself also recommends drinking it as a half-and-half with its own Pilsner.

Pairing Dishes Worth Trying

Matsue Beer Hearn 'Enmusubeer Stout' served with local dishes

Grilled oysters
The brewery’s official site names “toasty nuts” and “oysters with a milky character” as the things to eat with this beer. Dark beer and oysters have been served together for a long time outside Japan too. Grill them until the shells open, then pour a little of this black beside them: the scorched edge of the shell and the roast of the malt run in the same direction.
Lake Shinji shijimi clams steamed in sake
Shijimi (Yamato clams) from Lake Shinji are registered under Japan’s Geographical Indication system as entry No. 171 by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. Lake Shinji is a brackish lake whose salinity is roughly a tenth of seawater — exactly what these clams like. In the Edo period they were reserved as the Matsue domain’s own clams, and they turn up in quantity in Jomon-period shell mounds around the lake. Matsue households bought more shijimi than those of any other Japanese city for fourteen consecutive years as of 2024. A local staple, meeting the local dark beer.

A note on the science: the core savoury compound in shellfish is succinic acid, and oysters add glutamate on top of it. When different umami compounds appear together, each is perceived more strongly than it would be alone — the same synergy behind combining kombu and bonito flakes in a Japanese stock. The toasty quality of roasted malt, meanwhile, comes from aromas created when sugars and amino acids react under heat (the Maillard reaction), layered with a touch of char. That sits in the same direction as the smell of a grilled shell, so the two don’t fight. The faint sweetness of the lactose then rounds off the salt and minerality of the shellfish.

Visiting the Brewery

Shimane Beer Co., Ltd. (Matsue Beer Hearn)
509-1 Kuroda-cho, Matsue City, Shimane Prefecture 690-0876 (inside the Matsue Horikawa Jibiiru-kan). It stands right beside the moat of Matsue Castle, on the stretch where the Horikawa sightseeing boats pass. There is a restaurant and a bottle shop attached to the brewery.

Sights Nearby

Lafcadio Hearn Memorial Museum & Hearn’s Old Residence / Okudani-cho and Kitahori-cho, Matsue | about 1 minute by car from the brewery, 0.3 km
The museum devoted to “Hearn-sensei” — the man the beer is named after — and the samurai house where Hearn and his wife Setsu lived from June to November 1891. The residence was designated a National Historic Site on August 30, 1940 (Agency for Cultural Affairs, Cultural Heritage Online). The museum stands just west of the house, and its director is Bon Koizumi, Hearn’s great-grandson. Both are within walking distance of the brewery.
Matsue Castle / Tonomachi, Matsue | about 5 minutes by car from the brewery, 1.4 km
Built in 1611 by Yoshiharu Horio, its keep was designated a National Treasure in July 2015. According to the Shimane prefectural site, it is one of only twelve original castle keeps still standing in Japan, and the only one in the San’in region. It is also known as “Chidori Castle.” The brewery sits beside this castle’s moat.
Yaegaki Shrine / Sakusa-cho, Matsue | about 15 minutes by car from the brewery, 7.3 km
A shrine to Susanoo-no-mikoto and Kushinada-hime, long associated with the tying of bonds. Its inner precinct holds the “Mirror Pond,” where visitors float a slip of paper weighted with a coin to divine a future match; the City of Matsue’s own tourism white paper lists it as a popular spot for those hoping for a good match. If you are drinking a beer called “Enmusubeer,” this is the place to visit first.

Hot Springs Nearby

Tamatsukuri Onsen / Tamayu-cho Tamatsukuri, Matsue | about 20 minutes by car from the brewery, 9.2 km
An old hot spring south of Lake Shinji, mentioned in the eighth-century Izumo no Kuni Fudoki gazetteer. Besides the inns, there is a public bathhouse open to day visitors, Tamatsukuri Onsen Yu-Yu (255 Tamatsukuri, Tamayu-cho, Matsue). It is closed on Mondays. Opening hours and the bathing fee were listed differently by different guides, so please call ahead to confirm before you go.

Opening hours, closing days and day-use bathing availability can change. Please check each facility’s official information before visiting.

A Quick Glossary of Beer Terms

Craft beer: Beer made by small breweries that put the character of the maker front and centre, as opposed to the uniformity of mass production.
Stout: A near-black beer built on deeply roasted malt, with coffee and chocolate notes and a firm roasted bitterness.
Malt: Germinated barley. It forms the foundation of a beer’s sweetness, colour and body; how deeply it is roasted determines colour and toastiness.
Hops: The cones of a climbing plant, which give beer its bitterness and aroma. Depending on the variety, that aroma can read as citrus, tropical fruit or open grassland.
ABV: Alcohol By Volume. Beer typically runs around 5%; above 8% is considered a strong, heavier-drinking beer.
IBU: International Bitterness Units, a scale for how bitter a beer tastes. Around 10 is barely noticeable bitterness; above 60 lands in clearly bitter IPA territory.

Sources

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Read this article in Japanese: 結ばれなかったほうの縁