History of cider and Mitsuya

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History of cider and Mitsuya

When I was a child, I played outside as much as I could and came home exhausted,

The drink taken from the fridge was soda water in a bottle.

It is said that the first carbonated drink was introduced to Japan in 1853, when the American Perry’s fleet arrived, but Mitsuya Cider has a much older history, dating back to the middle of the Heian period.” Minamoto Mitsunaka, the founder of the Seiwa Minamoto clan, who is also mentioned in “Kaido yuku Saga Stroll (Journey to the back of Kyoto)“, prayed to the Sumiyoshi Taisha shrine in present-day Osaka to build a castle, and was told that he should make the place where the arrow fell to be his residence. When Mitsunaka shot the arrow towards the sky, it flew away in a burst of fire and disappeared from sight. When he looked for it, he found that the arrow had hit a ‘nine-headed dragon’, which had been living in Tadanuma and tormenting the inhabitants. Mitsunaka then built a castle in Tadanuma and gave the man who found the arrow, Magohachiro, a fiefdom, the surname Mitsuya and the crest of three arrow feathers (which later became the Mitsuya mark).

One day, when Mitsunaka went falconry, he found a falcon in a spring in the valley of the Shiogawa River near his castle, which had healed a wound in its leg and was taking flight. The spring water was a sacred spring. The place is Tada Village Plain (now Kawanishi City, Hyogo Prefecture). Hirano Onsen-kyo, which made use of the natural mineral springs (hot springs containing carbon dioxide gas) that gushed out here, continued to prosper for a long time until around the beginning of the Meiji era (1868-1912).

In the Meiji era (1868-1912), there was a need to provide high-quality water for the many foreign dignitaries visiting Japan at the time. The government carried out active water quality surveys in various locations.” As described in “On the Road – A Walk in Kobe“, Kobe and other cities became famous for providing good quality water to foreign ships calling at their ports.

In 1881 (Meiji 14), the British physicist William Gallant analysed the water of Hirano Onsen and endorsed it as “an ideal mineral spring”. Three years later, in 1984 (17th year of Meiji), a private factory launched Mitsuya Hirano Water and Mitsuya Tansan, incorporating names derived from the legend. The water from Hirano Onsen became widely recognised by the public as ‘Hirano Water’ and at the same time the Mitsuya trademark was established.

Hiranomizu was also a favourite drink of Natsume Soseki and appeared in his novels Gyojin (The Gyojin) and Kioku no Koto etc. It was also adopted as an imperial gift in 1897, when Emperor Taisho was the Crown Prince.

In 1907, Teikoku Kosen K.K. (formerly Mitsuya Hirano Kosen Goshi Kaisha) was established, and based on the traditional Hirano water, Mitsuya Mark Hirano Champagne Cider was launched by adding brownish caramel made by boiling down sugar and cider flavour imported from the UK, and in 1921, the name was changed to Mitsuya Champagne Cider, which was The product was renamed ‘Mitsuya Champagne Cider’ in 1921 and marketed.

In 1921, Katuto Beer merged with Teikoku Mineral Spring and Nippon Bottle to form Nippon Beer Mines Co.

Cider was a munitions product during the Pacific War, so production continued, but towards the end of the war, the factory was leased out as a munitions factory and some of the equipment was destroyed in the war, so production was suspended for a period until July 1946, the year after the war ended Production resumed in July 1946, but the government In 1951, when sugar rationing ended, the company also launched ‘All Sugar Mitsuya Champagne Cider’, which was made with sugar. The name was changed to Mitsuya Cider in 1968 after a French champagne company protested against the use of the name ‘champagne’ to the National Soft Drink Federation.

Dainippon Beer Company was split into Asahi Beer Company and Nippon Beer Company in 1949 as part of a company split under the GHQ-directed Excessive Concentration of Economic Power Elimination Act, and Mitsuya Cider, along with Union Beer, was taken over by Asahi Beer to market ‘Asahi Beer Mitsuya Cider’.

The original champagne cider was coloured with synthetic colouring, but to promote safety, the use of colouring was discontinued and the cider became the transparent cider it is today.

Asahi Beer’s beer sales began to decline in the mid-1950s, and at one point its market share fell below 10%, putting the company’s survival in jeopardy, but profits from Mitsuya Cider supported the company for about 30 years until 1987, when Asahi Super Dry became a hit and the company’s performance was restored. The company’s profits from Mitsuya Cider supported the company’s operations for about 30 years until 1987 (1987) when Asahi Super Dry became a hit.