Ishii Miso was founded about 150 years ago in Ise-machi under Matsumoto Castle and has been brewing miso that is made in cedar vats, naturally brewed, and aged for three years. Today, more than 90% of miso sold in Japan is made in stainless steel tanks and shipped after only one to three months of aging. Ishii Miso, in keeping with the old saying “Sannen Miso ni Tsuite” (Never give up on three-year miso), continues to preserve Shinshu’s “Sannen Miso” by using domestic soybeans and rice, and spring water from the Alps mountains, and by brewing miso in the traditional way.

＜Miso warehouse tour＞
A 15-minute drive from Matsumoto, you will visit three miso breweries with different ages of maturation, where you will learn about miso making in front of over 2-meter-high cedar vats that have been preserved since the company’s founding. Surrounded by vats that actually hold about 5 tons of miso, you will learn the basics of miso and how it is made directly from the craftspeople, who will explain the different colors and regional characteristics of miso. You will be amazed at the new knowledge of miso that you will learn from the miso artisans.

＜Miso soup tasting＞
After the tour of the miso warehouse, you will enter the store in front of the miso warehouse and taste the miso soup. It is said that miso soup tastes best when it is boiled at around 60 degrees Celsius after the heat is turned off and the miso has been boiled.

＜Miso barrel labeling＞

You can take home an assortment of two types of miso from Ishii Miso as a souvenir. You can choose and affix your favorite one from a total of five types of labels: the original label of KAI MATSUMOTO and the label provided by Ishii Miso. Inside the barrels are two types of miso, one one-year and one three-year, which you can enjoy at home after your trip is over.

We will lend you an ashiyu set so that you can experience an ashiyu in the open-air guest room baths of KAI MATSUMOTO. It is said that footbaths have the effect of refreshing the body from the inside out, and lightening and toning the mind and body. The feet, where pressure points that affect the organs are gathered, are slowly warmed by the water of Asama Hot Spring, an alkaline simple hot spring also known as “hot water of beauty.

After soaking in the footbath, guests will be served an original miso sweet made with miso ice cream from Ishii Miso. Kai Matsumoto offers about 50 types of wine from the Kikyogahara area of Shiojiri City, Nagano Prefecture, and proposes pairing hot wine made with local red wine with an original miso sweet that features the slightly salty flavor of miso spread softly in the sweetness of vanilla ice cream.

Ishii Miso offers three types of miso: one-year, two-year, and three-year miso, each with a different color, flavor, and aroma. At breakfast in Matsumoto, guests can enjoy their own unique blend of the three types of miso by dissolving them in their own soup stock and comparing them with each other. You can warm your low-temperature body in the morning with your own personal cup of miso, while discovering your own miso preference with mushrooms, agar agar, and other ingredients that are representative of Nagano Prefecture.

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