‘Kawachi Genichiro Shoten’ is the only one licensed Tane-Koji maker in Kyushu area. 

When we say “Koji”(Koji-kin or Tane-Koji, the spore) , a lot of the time we mean 黄麹“Aspergillus oryzae” with which Japanese people have made Sake, Miso, Amazake, Shoyu (soy sauce), Mirin and some more types of condiments / seasonings over thousands of years. Although actually there are other types of Aspergillus have been found and studied.

Most significant discovery was done by Genichiro Kawachi 河内源一郎 (1883-1948) in 1910 in Kagoshima, Japan, he successfully separated 黒麹 “Aspergillus luchuensis var. awamori” while he was studying Awamori 泡盛, the alcoholic beverage indigenous and unique to Okinawa, Japan.   Okinawa is the southernmost prefecture of Japan, which developed its own unique culture through trading with other Asian countries such as Thailand and China from ancient times.

Kawachi then discovered and introduced methods to make Shochu 焼酎 by using this spore. His incredible accomplishments were not limited to this finding but also in 1924, he succeeded in discovering a mutation variety of Aspergillus luchuensis var. awamori, that is 白麹 “Aspergillus luchuensis mut. kawachii“ named after him. This type of spore enabled people to make more variety of Shochu more accessibly, and also was brought to Korea by one of his pupil, then, spread across Korea to make Makgeolli.

Thus Genichiro Kawachi has been called “God of Koji“ and “Father of Shochu“ in Japan.