Koshi No Murasaki Soy Sauce Brewery

Though Japanese soy sauce is now a popular ingredient in cooking worldwide, many people do not know there are various regional differences with regard to flavor and character. Koshi no Murasaki’s eponymous soy sauce includes bonito dashi stock, in the style preferred in Niigata Prefecture, but the brewery also produces a variety of more conventional soy sauces as well. Koshi no Murasaki’s drawstring gift bags are modeled on bags called jinkichi, which were traditionally used for carrying bottles of sake. The bag’s design depicts the brewery mascot, Koshi no Jizo, a playful image of the bodhisattva Jizo statue that sits outside.

An inscribed talisman left behind by carpenters indicates that the Koshi no Murasaki main building was constructed in 1877. Thick support pillars incorporated into the design help the structure withstand the heavy snowfall of Nagaoka winters. These pillars also helped the structure survive the 2004 Chuetsu earthquake with minimal damage, though tiles were lost from the roof and soy sauce production was temporarily disrupted. The building contains a shop, office, meeting space, and the main soy sauce production area. A two-story earthen storehouse with a white plaster and clapboard exterior is connected to the main building on the southern side. Beside it is a large brick chimney that displays the brewery’s name in bold white characters. Both the main building and the storehouse are registered Tangible Cultural Properties.

The chimney is one of the brewery’s most distinctive features. It originally released smoke from a coal-fired furnace used in miso and soy sauce production. The date it was added to the building is unknown, but it is thought to have been completed before 1933. After the chimney was damaged in the Chuetsu earthquake, it was rebuilt in a decorative capacity in honor of its many years as a distinctive part of Settaya’s traditional townscape.