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Ishikawa Brewery Co., Ltd.,
Ishikawa Brewery Co., Ltd., led by president Taro Ishikawa, the eighteenth head of the Ishikawa family, brews and sells "Tamajiman" Japanese sake. Besides Japanese sake, the company has been brewing a local beer, "Tama no Megumi," since 1998.
After the brewing deregulation in 1994, many companies in Japan were able to brew beer, and began brewing and selling beer. The year 1997 saw the establishment of the largest number of new breweries in a single year: over 100 new breweries appeared in Japan that year alone. Ishikawa Brewery entered the beer market the following year. By 1999, the number of microbreweries exceeded 300 against the backdrop of the increased popularity of local beers.
As they say, "History repeats itself," and Japan's local beers began enjoying popularity similar to back in the days of the Meiji Period (1868 - 1912). In those days, Ishikawa Brewery had also started brewing beer. This fact is demonstrated by historical materials, which are currently on display in the Ishikawa Brewery Historical Museum on the second floor of its Zougura building.
After Japan abolished its closed-door policy, beer arrived in Japan. In 1853, it is said that Komin Kawamoto, a doctor of Dutch medicine, test-brewed beer at his residence in Edo (present-day Tokyo) while consulting Dutch documents. This is believed to be the first time beer was brewed in Japan.
In 1870, after seventeen years of this test brewing, a Norwegian-American, William Copeland, established the Spring Valley Brewery in Yamate, Yokohama. This was Japan's first brewery, the predecessor of Kirin Brewery Co., Ltd. Later, in 1876, Sapporo's Kaitakushi Brewery, the forerunner of Sapporo Breweries, Ltd., was founded. At this time, most of the beer consumed in Japan consisted of imported products. It was 1886 that domestic beer first surpassed foreign beer in amounts consumed and, in the following year of 1887, Ishikawa Brewery began making and selling beer under the brand of "Nihon-Bakushu" (or, "JAPAN BEER,").
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