
Industries that use mold spp. in Japan have been engaged variously on manufacturing of not only ancient brewed materials and foods but chemical substances, medical drugs and so on. In most of the industries, physical reactions found in the life of mold have been handling skillfully. Accordingly, it is said that Japan has positioned at an outstanding level of the applied microbiology in its worldwide advanced countries.
In our tradition causing of various techniques in the brewing, which has been supporting our national food culture from the past, we can see the reason why our industries keep running at the cutting edge in the use of mold spp. Namely, occurrence of sake brewing with koji mold 1000 years ago was following by rises of miso and soy sauce manufacturing industries and then amazake (sweet fermented rice drink) and Japanese pickles became favorite foods continuously to this day. We have such a long history of our pioneers’ constant efforts for best selection of koji mold and manufacturing method to produce advanced types of good taste for both drinking and eating. Therefore, the koji mold is a microbe locating at the origin of our food culture, which is just worthy of being called the ”national mold” which represents the nation same as calling that cherry blossoms and Japanese pheasant are the national flower and bird, respectively. The tradition has also become a big advantage in the field of biotechnology centering around molecular biology and genetic engineering as we know it today.
As just described, the koji mold has so strongly become one of the backgrounds for development of microbial industries in our country. Indeed, Konno Shoten Co. Ltd. is a rare company across the country, which is manufacturing the seed of koji mold (koji starter) and selling it directly to not only brewers nationwide but users overseas.
Since its founding, we have been supplying large numbers of commercial products including superior koji starter, yeast, lactic bacteria, enzyme preparations, etc., sharing with “technology becomes capital” as its watchword. Recently, in addition to brewed food and microbes, we are also focusing on the field of source materials of biological control agents, materials of health foods, source materials of cosmetics and reagents for research.
Our company’s motto is “ON KO CHI SHIN” (which means “Learn from the past” consisting of 4 Chinese characters). The first character, “ON” (which means “to heat up” other than “to learn”) signifies just like the process to make soup with stewing meat. In accordance with this proverb, we will stew past scientific knowledge and ancient wisdom which have been backed up by history, and further, we will create a new possibility to move a step ahead. Accordingly, to the best of our poor ability, we will keep trying to be useful to the society.
