いち粒 ICHIRYU

At the beginning of the 1980's the number of cancer patients was on the rise and concern about health became bigger. Around that time our founder came across a book on Macrobiotics focusing on the great results of a brown rice diet. He was most surprised to discover that a clergyman exposed to radiation in Nagasaki did not suffer from any A-bomb diseases thanks to his brown rice diet.

Since he believed that the detoxifying power of brown rice as well as food fibres would be wonderful in modern society, he decided to cultivate brown rice and to promote this idea.

Farmers were depending on chemical fertilizers produced in the west then but he chose to grow rice organically. It took 5 years to improve the chemically contaminated land and he finally succeed in producing safe brown rice in 1990. Since cooking brown rice usually takes a long time, ready-to-eat brown rice porridge was developed in 1990. The sales increased year on year and Ichiryu Co. Ltd. was founded in August 1982.

The next turning point was a book called ‘The Gerson Therapy' written by the German Dr. Max Gerson in November 1992. We came to know about the incredible power the carrot has in fighting against the biggest human enemy cancer and we started to look for safe carrot growers. Luckily, the top growers of carrots are in our neighbourhood village plateau where vegetables have been grown for a large Japanese juice manufacturing company for years.

It is located in the upper side of the river where the chemical inflow does not affect the crop. That area was also famous for a wonderful cultivation method utilising the wisdom of the snow country - 3m to 8m thick snow covers the land during the winter months and farmers use the snow as a natural fridge to store the carrots under the snow. These carrots are harvested in spring and are renowned for their delicious flavour. The secret of their sweetness was uncovered by research done in Niigata more than 10 years later. It was proved that the natural level of amino acid increases by leaving them out during the winter months in a cold environment.

We made a product using precious carrots called Carrots Under Snow in 1993. The juice is very rich in fibre and this was extremely innovative when launched.

Our juice was introduced on a very famous TV food program called "GOCHISO SAMA" and this helped the juice become very popular. Now the juice is distributed by prestigious department stores, as well as organic supermarkets in big cities like Tokyo, Yokohama and Kyoto. Exporting to Taiwan, Hong Kong and Shanghai began in 2006. More than 8 million carrot juice bottles have been sold since its release and it is our company's longest selling item.