Episode 1: Entrance to the Museum | Japanese Wine

This building was constructed in 1904 by one of our predecessors, Kotaro Miyazaki. Being Japan’s oldest wooden winery, this building is recognized by the Japanese government as a historic asset from the Meiji period’s industrial modernization from 1868 to 1912, and as such, has been a museum since 1974. While studying in France, Masana Maeda, an early supporter of Japan’s industrial modernization, purchased seeds and seedlings of more than 1,000 species of plants, trees, fruit trees, and grains to bring back to Japan. In addition, an agronomist named Charles Baltet prepared 10,000 vines for Maeda. In 1877, Maeda asked Baltet to help educate Masanari Takano and Ryuken Tsuchiya, two young men from this area, in the art of wine making. Baltet had the two travel to Troyes, the Champagne region of northern France, to study under his assistant, Pierre Dupont. Kotaro Miyazaki’s father refused to let him travel to France with the other two. However, when Dai-Nihon Yamanashi Budoshu Company Limited, Yamanashi’s first winery, failed in 1886, Miyazaki decided to collaborate with Ryuken Tsuchiya to establish Kai-san Budoshu Winery, and in 1888 opened Kai-San Shoten as a sales office in Nihonbashi, Tokyo. The first wine the two made in the French style didn’t sell well. Later, Miyazaki decided to go it alone, while Tsuchiya went off to found his own winery. Instead of producing dry French-style wines, Miyazaki began to produce sweeter wines, which sold markedly better.