The roots of Hasegawa Shuzo date back to 1842, when the founder of Hasegawa Shuzo settled in Niigata after escaping Nagano due to the ongoing strife in the Sengoku period. Initially allowed to brew 12’600 litres, the next two generations built on this foundation and established Hasegawa Shuzo’s legacy.

The main brewery building, established in 1886, was made an important tangible cultural property in 2012. The brewery sits in the picturesque town of Nagaoka and can be visited, with prior appointment, through a walking tour together with four other breweries.

More recently, the story of Hasegawa Shuzo is a touching tale of daughters banding together to save their family heritage. After their father decided to follow his father’s footsteps into politics, their mother and current manager of the brewery, Yoko Hasegawa, took over. When their three daughters decided to leave Niigata to pursue their own dreams, their mother didn’t stop them, she knew the hard work that running a brewery required.

Difficult times after the 2004 Niigata earthquake, in which a major warehouse of theirs collapsed, and the thought that none of their children was interested in continuing the brewery convinced Yoko Hasegawa to close down the brewery. But as fate would have it, their youngest daughter, who was abroad studying in the US, suddenly decided to take over the brewery after all. Not only that, both other daughters then decided to join as well. Currently the brewery is still family run and everything looks set for it to continue to the eighth generation and further.