Outline
| Company name | Muroji Co., Ltd. |
|---|---|
| “Muroya” was founded. (Production and sales of koji, sake, miso and soy sauce) |
1573 |
| “Muroji” was founded. (Production and sales of soy sauce specifically) |
February, 1689 |
| Muroji, Co. Ltd. was established. | June 4, 1962 |
| Capital | 38 million yen |
| Head office Head office and Brewery |
2-4-1 Tawara, Fukui-city, Fukui prefecture 910-0018, Japan |
| TEL | +81-776-22-2001 (switchboard) |
| Fax | +81-776-22-2031 |
| Factory Market factory |
In the industrial complex relating to the central wholesale market of Fukui City 1-1704, Takayanagi, Fukui-city, Fukui prefecture 910-0837, Japan |
| Laboratory | Muroji laboratory (halal certified factory) Bio-clean room A, Biology unit, Fukui Prefectural University 4-1-1, Kenjojima, Matsuoka, Eiheiji-cho, Yoshida-gun, Fukui prefecture 910-1195, Japan |
| The list of goods and services | Production and/or sales of soy sauce, miso, salt, fat, petroleum |
History
| 1573 | The head of our family was a vassal of a Sengoku daimyo (a feudal lord during the warring period in Japan), the Asakura clan in Fukui. He and his several retainers were, however, were all killed in the battle against the Nobunaga Oda. The women and their children who were left behind.
When Katsuie Shibata, the new ruler who built Kitanosho Castle and a town around it, they launched a business of production and sales of sake, soy sauce, miso, and koji in Kamishinmeicho (present location: Tawara, Fukui-city). Muroya was founded. The founder, Giuemon Muroya (Junai Uchida) was then under 10 years of age. This area was an important transportation hub, where two ancient major roads of Hokuriku kaido and Mikuni kaido met. There were clean water supply systems which were later called Shibahara Watercourse in the area, and thus it was the best place for brewing. In addition, soy sauce in those days was “tamari-shoyu”, which was defined as a small amount of liquid accumulated at the bottom of a miso barrel in the course of brewing. And it was very expensive because only a small amount was produced. |
|---|---|
| February, 1689 | Muroji was founded.
Zizaemon, the fourth head of the Muroya family, learned the newest brewing method of those days from a far-off breweries in Kishu-Yuasacho, Wakayama prefecture. The new method enabled mass production. He changed brewing facilities for sake and started a full-scale mass production of soy sauce and founded “Muroji” (a new name of the store) as a brewery specialized in soy sauce. Since then, Muroji was able to make a large amount of inexpensive soy sauce, leading to providing soy sauce for the common people. From those days on, soy sauce became rapidly popular and was delivered to each place by boats and large two-wheeled hand-drawn carts. In addition, workers who worked as an apprentice were granted license from the employer to become independent brewers and started to make soy sauce in various places. This is the way soy sauce stores were gradually established in Fukui. The price of soy sauce in Edo era was higher than that of the same amount of Daiginjo-shu, top-quality sake. |
| 1703 | Souemon Muroya (a younger brother of Jizaemon Muroya) set up a branch family in Mikuni and founded a new brewery, Mikunimuroya. He was engaged in the production and sales of soy sauce.
His son, Souemon the second started a shipping business and become a wealthy merchant, the Uchida family. In the Bakumatsu period (the last days of the Tokugawa shougunate), he got actively engaged in the export of soy sauce. |
| 1859 | In the Bakumatsu period, Fukui Clan was in the worst financial condition; however, Kosei Yuri built an Echizen daimyo’s city treasure storehouse in Nagasaki under the order from Shungaku Matsudaira and exported products such as raw silk and shoyu (soy sauce in English: our brand name was “Kiku Shoyu”), which helped rebuild the finance of the Fukui Clan.
We reproduced the soy sauce exported at this time, and is now available. The product name is “Soy Sauce from Bakumatsu”. In those days, Muroji was the largest soy sauce store in Fukui prefecture (production 3000 koku, that is, about 540,000 L per year) and Kamejuro the eighth who was 30 years old gave cooperation to Fukui Clan to become a great contributer of Muroji’s business recovery. |
| 1863 | Ryoma Sakamoto borrowed 5,000 ryo (in those days, annual budget of Fukui Clan was about 100,000 ryo) from Shungaku Matsudaira, the lord of Fukui Clan, and constructed the “Kobe Naval Training Center”.
Then, Ryoma stayed at Tabakoya, a Japanese-style hotel, (Terute, Fukui-city) and talked over alcohol with Yuri Kosei all night long. A branch of Muroji was located on the northern side of Tabakoya and Ryoma savored “Soy Sause from Bakumatsu” of Muroji. |
| 1872 | In the Netherlands,Tomomi Iwakura, Kosei Yuri and a group of other inspectors confirmed our soy sauce, “Kiku Shoyu”, which had been exported in the Bakumatsu period.
In those days, our store measured 40 meters. |
| March, 2012 | We collaborated with Fukui Prefectural University to develop “Umasho”, low sodium soy sauce with odorless fish sauce made from fermented salted fish, for the first time in Japan. |
| March, 2014 | We have developed “Fukumurasaki”, which has an alcoholic content of 0% (Soy sauce conventionally contains about 3% of alcohol), for the first time in the world. |
| January, 2015 | We started selling “Ryoma”, naturally brewed soy sauce for customers with strong preferrance. |