Overview

Company Profile	162 Azaiwasaki, Iwasaki, Yuzawa-shi Google Map
Access	Approx. 15 minute walk from JR Shimo-Yuzawa Station
Factory Opening Hours	Weekdays 9:00-17:00 　Closed during weekends and holidays, Golden Week, Obon, New Year's
Contact Information	TEL：0183-73-2901 FAX：0183-73-8131 E-mail：ishimago@gray.plala.or.jp
Reservations	Reservations required (please provide group size, schedule, etc. in advance)

History

Established in 1855 (Ansei 2). It all started when our founder, Magozaemon Ishikawa, observed that places suitable for sake were also suitable for brewing soy sauce. He then invited head brewer Saburo Nanbu, and began to repeatedly research. Later, he presented the soy sauce to the Iwasaki Domain’s leader at the time, the Satake clan, and it received great praise. The soy sauce then became widely used, and its spread formed the foundation for our company.

We started producing miso with our second-generation president. Our region was an agricultural area abundant in rice and soybeans, so every household stewed their own homemade miso. Magozaemon the Second felt that following rice, miso was the next most nutritional and flavorful food. For that reason, we research miso production. Our journey to find the “perfect method” was a laborious one, where we selected our ingredients, improved our koji (malted rice), searched for the optimal duration for brewing, and more. But it was from that hard work that we were able to succeed with our “Igeta-certified Iwasaki Miso”.

Product Features

<Production Process>
As our preparation warehouses are lined up to deploy each process to each warehouse respectively, some processes, including packing ingredients into wooden buckets to transfer them into other wooden buckets, must be conducted by hand.

For both soy sauce and miso production, our staff has to carry these wooden buckets of ingredients back and forth between warehouses many times, until over 30 large wooden buckets are filled.

This method may seem inefficient, but it has contributed a lot to handing down our traditional style of monitoring the condition of ingredients – such as rice, soy beans, and wheat – entirely by hand.

We treat our products as living beings, so we believe they cannot be controlled—even by cutting-edge technology.

Our brewers devote themselves to producing our products without sparing any energy, and making the most of their innate strength.

That’s why we are extremely proud to say that our products are handcrafted.

<Products>
All-natural, house-made miso and soy sauce. Prepared with locally-grown ingredients and no additives.

Soy Sauce
Hyakuju, Hoju, Shoju, and Miso Tamari

Miso
Magozaemon Miso (prepared with brown rice germinated from unhulled rice), Warehouse #5 Miso, Black Miso, Kinnoibuki Miso (prepared with nutritious brown rice)

Please see our website for details.

Highlight

From 1883 (Meiji 16) to 1916 (Taisho 5), we constructed six warehouses under the leadership of our 6th generation head, Magozaemon the 6th. In 1998 (Heisei 10) these six warehouses were respectively registered as Important Tangible Cultural Properties by the National Agency for Cultural Affairs.

Among them, the oldest was the library storehouse, built in 1883, which stores our historical account books and daily items. The remaining five, Warehouses #1-5, are still in use today as preparation warehouses for soy sauce and miso production.

In chronological order, Warehouses #3, #4, #1, #2, and #5, built in 1897 (Meiji 30), 1900 (Meiji 33), 1904 (Meiji 37), 1910 (Meiji 43), and 1916 (Taisho 5) respectively, stand individually in line with each other on our grounds.

Each warehouse is equipped with large wooden barrels, which are much taller than the average human. These barrels can’t fit through the entrances of the warehouses, so we have continued to use the same barrels that we have had since the very beginning, some dating back to as far as the Meiji era.

Unfortunately, Warehouse #1 collapsed due to heavy snowfall and the March 11 Tohoku Earthquake. We therefore renovated the former storehouse to house soy sauce production instead, which resulted in Warehouse #1 losing its registration as an Intangible Cultural Property.

Inside the traditional warehouses there are many unique tools, such as a brick machine for roasting wheat, and a koji mold room where hundreds of containers are organized.

We are unable to accommodate a large number of people due to the production method carried out at our company. Thus, we ask that you refrain from visiting in large groups so as not to affect our production environment.