Japan has been known for some crazy innovations, and opening themselves to the western world has just made them...less noticeable/awesome. No really, those mikoshi and matsuri carts they carry around? They have zero nails supporting them. All wood in those babies. And these sugidama are to let you know when the sake is ready. Sugidama, 杉玉, sugi meaning cedar and dama meaning ball, in a literal translation is something like cedar ball. Yeah don't call it that, you will sound like an idiot.
Rice is harvested in the fall season. Actually right now in some areas, but most will harvest them in the following few weeks or month or so when the stalks turn to a nice shade of gold. Once the rice harvest comes in, the sake brewers use it to make fresh sake for the coming year. This process can take a few months time. As we all know good things come to those who wait, so wait we shall.
Regarding the waiting process, sake brewers created a rather unique process to tell when the time is right. They created these balls of cedar that reflected the 'ripeness' of the sake. Pretty much, the cedar balls start out green, as you would expect of any tree, and over time (say a few months) they turn to this nice brownish rotten shade of dead and deader leaves. And THAT ladies and gentlemen, is when your sake is ready, though people are welcome to have a go at the fresher stuff, the connoisseurs will typically hold off until the vintage is good. Yeah, oddly, sugidama have no purpose other than that, placing an age on the sake.
Now a days, the sugidama is mostly only used for decor, and of course to indicate you have some good alcohol. Mostly I will find them outside of cafes and restaurants that are fairly traditional in concept. But in my time here, I have never actually found a fresh one. This is probably because this is a dying cause. There are fewer and fewer crafters of these great balls of cedar. And not only that, it has gotten exactly no easier for them to make them. They are still hand made with all those branches, wires and weaving and will weigh in at a significant amount (I am talking these things can get to weighing more than me!). Though I suspect that, where as you can order a nice green one for a great great sum of money, the majority of locations where these can be found were purchased from things like recycle shops or the equivalent of estate sales in Japan, where old stores and homes get rid of all their old stuffs. And I also suspect that, if found, they will still come with a heavy price tag. Nothing in Japan is cheap. >:(
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