Asahi Shuzo was founded in 1830 with the motto, "Quality First." They believe that the quality of rice is the utmost importance in sake brewing; as one of their past Toji put it succinctly: "The quality of sake cannot go beyond the quality of the ingredients." Asahi Shuzo spends a vast amount of energy and time into rice making, they've even founded an agricultural production corporation, Asahi Noken, where they research to preserve Japan's national agriculture and produce better sake rice.