The Iga potteries are concentrated in the Marubashira area the northern parts of Iga. As a representing pottery, Nagatanien has a 16-connected climbing kiln (in operation from1832 to 1970s), which, as well as the houses and office (Taishokan), are designated as a cultural assets of the country.
Iga ware is characterized both by a pot earth bearable at high temperatures and a firewood of red pine whose ash in a kiln acts as a glaze. We saw an example of the old Iga ware vase with a raw texture and naturally melt green glass on it. Such vases were favored by the tea masteres of 16-17 centuries.
Once the 16-connected climbing kiln runs, a 500 units of red pine bundle were needed for a week to keep a high temperature at the top. Today, a small-scale 4-conneced climbing kiln is running using a red pine firewood in Nagatanien, while the major product is the Donabe pot, as we saw in their showroom, which is burnt with a burnable gas.

Mokumoku Tezukuri Farm is a farm-theme park located in the northern part of Iga, processing their own products and manage restaurants and stores on-site and on the internet. Challenging a new style of agriculture, they aim to advance current agriculture to industry as well as food education, not only by growing of products, but also taking action on the process and the sales of their products.
They grow rice, fruits, soy beans, mushrooms, strawberries, and make fresh products at their Vienna Sausage/Ham factory, bakery, sweets bakery, Japanese sweets bakery, brewery, tofu factory, jersey milk factory, roast pork factory, and Vienna sausage specialty shop. Vegetables, fruits, and rice grown on the farm and locally grown vegetables and flowers are also sold on the market. Ham and Vienna sausage, made with safe pork grown in Mie prefecture, has won many gold medals at meat product contest in Germany. It is well received by customers for its high-level quality. Beer, made from locally grown wheat, also has won many awards at the World Beer Cup. Fresh milk from Mokumoku Jersey Farm is made into pudding, cake, gelato, and yogurt and these safe and quality products are very popular.
Now Mokumoku Tezukuri Farm receive 500,000 guests a year, mainly elementary school students and parents for their field trips. Their products are sold at their direct management stores and restaurants in Tokyo, Nagoya, Kyoto and Osaka.

Iga Sake - Wakaebis brewery

Each of the seven Iga Sake breweries has a history of over 100 years. Characteristic habits of producing Iga Sake are a small-scale production obsessed with hand-working, the cultivation of the pesticide-free rice Yamada-Nishiki in their own fields and use of the Sake rice named Kamino-ho developed by the Mie prefecture. Wakaebis brewery that we visited was first brewed in 1853 and is still keeping the old-style production method, though the tanks turned into stainless steel thanks to the breed improvements of Koji and Yeasts.
During the Sake brewing process, degree of rice polishing greatly affects the quality of the final product because the use of the core part as close as the center of a rice particle brings pure taste. For the highest quality type of Sake, Dai Gynjo, the polishing degree should be as high as 50 percent. The waste rice powder, which is still a high quality rice, can be used as a feedstuff of the Iga cow.
Unlike other breweries buying polished rice from rice milling plants, Wakaebis owns its dedicated rice milling facilities as we saw at their factory and perform careful slow polishing keeping the rice temperature as low as possible to avoid cracks.

Renovation of old townhouse Machiya

The Iga local government approves high quality Iga products as IGAMONO every year. Nishi Machiya Kakan is a renovated Machiya for a multi-purpose space of showrooms, restaurants and shops complex. As we saw, the showroom is mainly for displaying IGAMONO products.