Its origin is that peasants in a region where farming during only a summer period could not produce enough money due to poor lands formed a group involving young people in their villages, and they went to another region called sake-dokoro (a place famous for sake brewing) where people brewed sake using the local good water, in order to make some additional incomes during a winter period, which was an agricultural off-season.
概して土地が乏しく夏場の耕作だけでは貧しかった地方の農民が、農閑期である冬に年間副収入を得るべく、配下に村の若者などを従えて、良い水が取れ酒造りを行なっている地域、いわゆる酒どころへ集団出稼ぎに行ったのが始まりである。