Yomeishu Seizo Company, Limited

Yomeishu Seizo, Co., Ltd. (養命酒製造株式会社) is a pharmaceutical manufacturing company. It is headquartered in SHIBUYA-KU, Tokyo. It manufactures and sells a traditional medicated liquor called "Yomeishu" and was founded on June 20, 1923. The Yomeishu-related segment is involved in the provision of Yomeishu and the manufacturing and sale of mineral supplements, as well as other derived beverage and food products.

Yomeishu is a traditional Japanese medicinal liquor. Dating back to 1602 it is considered to be the oldest pharmaceutical product of Japan.

According to legend, the manufacturer of Yomeishu, Sokan Shiozawa, a village headman of Shinshu Ina-gun Ogusa area (now Nagano Prefecture Kamiina-gun Nakagawa village Ogusa), rescued an old man who had fallen in the snow. The old man later became a retainer of the Shiozawa family for three years. Before leaving, he taught Sokan Shiozawa how to make medicinal sake as a way of expressing appreciation.

Production started in 1602 under the name "Yomeishu." In 1603, it was presented to the Shogun, Tokugawa Ieyasu and at that time Shiozawa was permitted to use the sign of "Flying Dragon (飛龍: Hiryu)," said to be the first Registered Trademark in Japan.

Ako Roshi (the main character in the story of Forty-seven Ronin, Chūshingura) is said to have drank Yomeishu. It also appears in the 1774 novel Anecdote of Foreign Country Wasobyoje.

The drink was manufactured at the Tenryu-kan of the Shiozawa clan for hundreds of years. In 1923, the family formed the Yomeishu Seizo Company. Despite an initial good start with wholesalers in Tokyo, by 1930, Yomeishu sales had declined amidst negative reviews but were revived in the region eighty times that of the first year of launch by 1963.

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