Sake Drinking (San-san-kudo)
During the ceremony, the groom is seen to drink something from a small cup – this is actually sake! The sake is used to ‘seal’ the marriage. I’m not sure if they just didn’t show it here or they did a different variation of the sake drinking but the Shinto ceremony consists of a san-san-kudo (literally three, three, nine times) where three cups of differing size (small to large) are exchanged and drunk by the bride and groom as a form of wedding vow. This represents the newly formed bond between the couple they enter their new status of husband and wife. The groom in this video does seem to lift up his cup three times and slowly and gracefully drinks the sake on the third lift. I know it might be hard to comprehend how you would drink sake gracefully (for me, sake is WAY too strong), but the drink also signifies that there may be hardships that will have to be overcome in the marriage and by undertaking the san-san0kudo ceremony, the spirits will help you get through them.
Sake drinking actually dates back to the samurai period where common people used to drink sake in a Shinto ritual to form a bond with the deities. This was always done in a group where it is thought that this sharing of sake ritual united people and created a bond of friendship between them with God as the helper. Why three times? Three is considered a lucky number in Buddhism and nine means triple happiness.