We want to deliver good things made by good people. Interview with Shoichiro Morita, owner of Heisuiken
This interview was conducted during our initial visit in February 2020.
Heisuiken attracts customers from all over Japan. What made you want to open a shop like this?
Morita
Our family has been making sake at our brewery (Morita Shuzo) since my grandfather's generation.
Sake brewing is a business you do once a year.
We brew in the cold season (starting the mash during the cold winter months), so our brewing season runs from November, when the new rice comes in, through March.
The whole year depends on that one shot over those few months.
Of course, there are years when brewing doesn't go well, and when that continues, frustration and anxiety keep building.
Then one day, wanting to throw everything away, I set off wandering aimlessly.
You went wandering—not in search of delicious food?
Morita
Right. I guess I'd just had enough (laughs).
On that trip, I went around visiting places where people made things.
Meeting people and discovering their products gave me the energy to start over and keep going.
I wanted to repay that kindness, and the idea of opening a shop that stocked things made by the people I met on my travels was what started it all.
There are people all over Japan making such wonderful things. It all comes down to meeting people.
More important than whether something tastes good is whether the person who made it is a good person.
If a good person makes something, it’s bound to be good.
I want to sell good people’s products to people who understand them—to deliver them.
I want to build that relationship at Heisuiken.
Are there any places or foods from your travels that left a lasting impression?
Morita
The Noto Peninsula. I still go there often, and the “inada buri” I encountered there is where it all began.
Wherever I go, the first thing I do is visit a market where local people shop.
When I went to Omicho Market in Kanazawa, I happened to look up and saw something like driftwood. Looking closely, it was shaped like a fish.
I asked a local what it was, and that’s when I learned it was “inada buri.”
In the past, distribution wasn't as well developed as it is now, so there was a surplus of buri.
They would hang the buri in the shade, where it froze at night and thawed in the morning.
Repeating that process produced a rock-hard preserved food.
When you eat it, it’s like katsuobushi, and the buri’s fat gradually seeps out.
The spirit of not throwing things away and the wisdom of everyday life were still alive.
Now, winter buri sells for a high price, and no one bothers making inada buri anymore. But I want to cherish that feeling of valuing things and the way of life behind it.
Sake brewing is the same.
You need a lot of rice to make sake.
You use rice that might have sprouted if it had been sown, and make sake with it. In other words, you’re extinguishing the rice’s potential.
There’s something deeply troubling about that.
That’s why I want to value the idea of “finding some way to make use of it.”
Whether it tastes good or bad doesn’t matter.
Inada buri is salty and not all that tasty (laughs).
But I think that’s fine.
Heisuiken has a wide range of products.
Is there anything in particular you focus on when designing the shop?
Morita
Eighty percent of Heisuiken’s customers are housewives, mainly in the 50-to-70 age group.
So we design the shop to make shopping comfortable and easy for them.
We pack products into the space between 90 centimeters and 2 meters above the floor, so customers can look at them while standing comfortably.
They don’t have to bend their knees or strain their necks to look up.
We’re always thinking about how our target customers look at things and what arrangement works best for them.
Did you notice the signs in the shop?
They’re not fixed signs, but moving POP displays that can be moved around.
They’re simply placed on top of the products.
That way, customers can pick them up and read them comfortably, at a natural eye level, which helps them understand the products better.
After a customer looks at a POP display, a staff member always puts it back in its original place.
That keeps everything tidy and makes restocking easier.
Two birds with one stone.
I come up with the POP displays, and my wife writes them.
All of them—about 1,500 kinds.
We use Japanese paper and brushes so that even Western-style products can fit into everyday life.
I’m always agonizing over what to write in a small POP display, in no more than about 50 characters.
You mentioned that you have about 1,500 products. Could you tell us which ones you especially recommend?
Morita
Without a doubt, it’s cheese from Yoshida Farm.
I really like Zensaku Yoshida (Yoshida Farm’s Zensaku Yoshida).
He’s the very embodiment of what it means to make things.
Mr. Yoshida makes cheese for his own family.
Since it’s cheese for his family, it can’t possibly be bad.
He’s also very particular about his cows. He raises Brown Swiss cows himself and makes cheese from their milk.
They produce less milk than Holsteins, but Mr. Yoshida’s cheese has to be made with Brown Swiss milk.
It takes a great deal of time, effort, and money, but I love how he never compromises.
And then there’s olive oil.
Do you know how to tell whether olive oil is good?
The best way is to taste it.
Authentic Italian olive oil doesn’t smell greasy; it has a fresh, fragrant aroma like nuts or green apples.
Heisuiken imports olive oil from Italy in five-liter cans.
We ask an independent trader to ship it by air, so we can get it fresh.
Once people have tried Heisuiken’s olive oil, they never go back.
What has left the strongest impression on you about running the shop, and what are you glad about?
Morita
I suppose it’s that we’ve gained more repeat customers. Maybe that’s proof that people can eat our products with confidence.
If you want to make good products, the ingredients themselves have to be good.
This is something everyone who makes things conscientiously struggles with: the better the ingredients, the more it costs to make things properly.
Producers are racking their brains over how to support their families and eliminate waste.
Expensive things are worth what they cost, and cheap things are worth what they cost.
Good things are made by the people who make them and the people who use them thinking things through together.
It costs more to feed your family good food, so it may put you in the red temporarily, but I think it will definitely pay off in the future.
There is so much to learn through food.
I don’t think it’s simply a matter of what tastes good or bad, or what’s expensive or cheap.
The story behind delicious food: “Delicious Foods Boutique Heisuiken”
Heisuiken has a food catalog called “A Picture Book of Feasts”. It contains the following passage.
For us, food is a symbol of the wonderful relationship we have with the land, and the fruit of an irreplaceable interaction between nature and people.
In this age of abundance, I feel that foods like that are surprisingly rare and hard to find.
Truly delicious, good food must surely let you feel the thoughts of the people who made it.
Each product at Heisuiken seems to embody the paths President Morita has followed and the people he has met in different places.
Food whose makers you can see, and whose stories and background you can sense.
If you visit Heisuiken, you’re sure to find a favorite item.
Delicious Foods Boutique Heisuiken Information
| Name | Delicious Foods Boutique Heisuiken |
|---|---|
| Address | 8-8 Honmachi, Kurashiki City, Okayama Prefecture |
| Contact | 086-427-1147 |
| Parking | None |
| Hours | 10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m. |
| Closed | Monday |
| Payment methods |
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| Website | Kurashiki Heisuiken |
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