Rita wasn't sure how other people felt, but for her... whenever she heard the name Miyamizu Mitsuha, she thought of kuchikamizake.
The traditional method of making kuchikamizake was a little gross and hard for most people today to accept. But really, it depended on who made it. If it was made by a beautiful anime girl... just imagine! Even if you didn't drink it, it would still be meaningful to keep as a collectible!
She'd mentioned it when she was with Kikyo: it was basically like feeding someone mouth to mouth... What's more, even the kuchikamizake sold online by unscrupulous merchants, who knows how they made it, cost far more than ordinary famous wines.
Kuchikamizake was actually one of the most primitive forms of "fermentation." It had been passed down from Shenzhou... and eventually spread to Japan.
The production of li wine in ancient Shenzhou went through roughly three stages. First came the chewing method, then the qu-making method, and finally the use of a fermentation starter.
In the movie Your Name, the kuchikamizake was an offering to the gods at Miyamizu Shrine in Itomori. The kuchikamizake made by Miyamizu Mitsuha was no ordinary drink, either. It was Mitsuha's "other half," which could also be understood as part of her soul, or as a link between the gods and the real world.
As the male lead searched for the truth behind his soul-swapping with Mitsuha, he accidentally discovered that she had died in a natural disaster three years earlier. But later, he found the kuchikamizake she had brewed and drank it, taking Mitsuha's "other half" into his body. That allowed him to connect with the soul of Mitsuha, who should have been dead, and help her save the people of the town, changing both their fates.
So Rita kind