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Take a Study Tour into Our Kura to Have an Uncommon Experience
We guide you through our over 100-year-old kura buildings where we actually brew our "Tamajiman" sake.
This will be an uncommon experience for you. Inside the buildings,
you will see the
beauty of the old Japanese architecture of the kura that
has been maintained since it was first built.
Reservations are required for the study tour.
Open Mon-Fri 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.(except National Holiday)
French is available.
No charge
For details, call:
Tel: 042-553-0100 (Ask for the person in charge of the Kura Study Tour.)
E-mail:liveinfo@tamajiman.co.jp
See Some of the Movie Introducing Our Kura for Tour Participants
We videotaped our kura buildings and other facilities
and made a short video (about 13 minutes) so tour participants
can enjoy the tour more effectively.
Here are some video clips excerpted from the video.
To view these video clips, you will need Windows Media Player.  |
Translation of narration
Ishikawa Brewery, with its premises surrounded by tall whitewashed
walls, is located in Kumagawa of Fussa City, in the western part
of Tokyo.
The history of Ishikawa family started in the Muromachi Period
(1333 - 1573 A.D.). We started the sake
brewing business in 1863 and, since then, we have been brewing
sake with its renowned rich taste and aroma. Ishikawa Brewery
maintains a respect that is faithful to the art of sake brewing
and, therefore, we are able to produce excellent sake and beer
that have been acclaimed by many people. The spirit of sake brewers
has been maintained in this historical and time-tested environment.
Learn how our sake is made and see how our staff members work
in these magnificent buildings, and add to your pleasure of tasting
our "Tamajiman" sake." "Tamajiman" has
a fragrant aroma and a pleasant aftertaste. |
Translation of narration
In this Hongura building, first-quality water and rice are used
to make our sake. The building is a storehouse built in 1881.
It stands 13.25 m high with a frontage of 25.2 m and depth of
31.5 m. The roof is covered with tiles, and its area is as broad
as 990 square meters. It is said that a building on such a scale
is rare for existing wooden kura buildings. Such a kura has been essential for sake brewing for many years because a steady
temperature is maintained throughout the year. Now that the process
of sake brewing has been modernized, the temperature is easier
to control, but Ishikawa Brewery wants to and does respect our
buildings because we want to preserve the culture of sake brewing
and culture of Japan. |
Translation of narration
The brewed sake is stored in Shingura, the building next to Hongura.
There are some other kura buildings on the premises of
Ishikawa Brewery, and they are used for different purposes. This
kura building, which is called Zougura, was being used as a rice
granary in the Meiji Period (1868 - 1912 A.D.).
Now, we serve handmade buckwheat noodles in a Japanese restaurant,
"Zougura," on the first floor of this building, and
display historical items in the museum on the second floor. The
material of the museum includes articles concerning the 400-year
history of the Ishikawa family, and sake brewing in the old days. |
Translation of narration
Next to the beer factory is a beer restaurant, "Fussa no
Birugoya," where you can enjoy our beer fresh from the brewery.
In the summer season, the restaurant is in such a great bustle
that we almost run out of beer, and the open space in front of
the restaurant is used as a beer garden. Our greatly popular beer,
"Tama no Megumi," won the Gold Prize in the Japan Beer
Grand Prix 2000, proving its top-class value on a worldwide base,
being recognized as the best local beer in Japan both in name
and reality. |
Translation of narration
This is a beer caldron used in the old days. We have enshrined
this caldron because we had been hoping to revive beer brewing.
Finally, in 1998, the long-awaited beer brewing started for the
first time in 111 years. We named the beer Local Tokyo Beer, "Tama
no Megumi," which is made from natural ingredients including
the same source water used for our brewing our sake and carefully
selected barley (100% barley). |
Translation of narration
In the center of the premises are two 400-year-old zelkova trees,
called Meoto Keyaki. At the root of these trees, Daikokuten, the
god of rice, and Benzaiten, the goddess of water, are enshrined.
Sake is made from rice and water, and quality rice and fresh water
are essential for making excellent sake. Consequently, Ishikawa
Brewery gives a great deal of devotion to the god of rice and
goddess of water. The source water is pumped from a point 150
m below the ground. This water is the middle-hard water , which is very suitable as source
water for sake brewing . Varietiers of
the rice suitable for brewing sake are
used , include "Yamada-nishiki" from
Hyogo prefecture, and other carefully
selected .
The rice being hand-washed in this video has been polished
down to the core of grains. The degree of rice polishing depends
on the type of sake to be made. For Ginjo sake, rice is polished
down until the weight becomes half of its original. Incidentally,
the weight of most polished rice for sake brewing is only 35%
of its original weight. |
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