Our Roots

February 15, 1891 Sakuji Ohashi (Ohashi Sakuji / the first generation of Ohashi Farm, which cultivated this land today) was born in Fukushima Prefecture. Actually, the Ohashi family immigrated from Ota Village in Fukushima Prefecture. At that time (around 1893), there was a buzz of talk about moving to Hokkaido in Ota Village, Fukudate District, Fukushima Prefecture. On May 3, 1909, the year after Sakuji was born, the Ohashi family left their familiar hometown and set off for Hokkaido, an unexplored land.
The family first headed to Asahikawa City, Hokkaido.
I moved to Higashiasahikawa-cho, Asahikawa City, which is located north of Daisetsuzan and is commonly known as Pepan. Sakuji was very good with his hands, so he started building temples in Asahikawa from a young age.
Then, when Sakuji turned 30 years old (1945), he moved to Ashibetsu and started building employee housing for the coal mine.
After the end of the war, in 1945, the government acquired the land and cultivated it. That location is the land of the current Ohashi Cherry Orchard.

Masaru Ohashi (Saru Ohashi / 2nd generation of Ohashi Farm / 1st generation of Ohashi Cherry Farm) was born in Asahikawa City on March 1, 1939. He followed in Sakuji’s footsteps and worked hard to grow pears, melons, and grapes together. As good as Sakuji, Katsu was a very hard worker and was even called a “human machine” by those around him.
Katsu married his wife, Yoshiko, when he was 25 years old (1968). When Katsu got married, he bought a new field, doubled the size of the field, and increased his plantings.
However, those efforts did not bear fruit, and the same year they got married and the year after that. Grapes, which had become the mainstay of income, suffered a major crop failure two years in a row due to frost damage (damage caused by frost). After experiencing frost damage for two years, his father, Sakuji, was acutely aware that the future of the business was at a standstill. In addition, Katsu also got married and expanded the area of ​​his farm, but was unable to find any hope for the future due to the disaster that occurred soon after.

However, even though the grapes were almost destroyed due to a poor harvest, the wild vines that had been planted as windbreaks for the cropscherry tree Seeing that __SEGT19__=” is bearing a lot of fruit, Katsu proposes to Sakuji, “” was bearing a lot of fruit, Katsu proposed to Sakuji, “Cut down grapes and plant cherries” I decided to do this.
Sakuji, who has spent decades cultivating grapes with great care, must have been saddened to see his fruit cut. It must have also been extremely difficult for Katsu to have to cut down the vines he had grown so attached to, having spent his childhood growing them with Sakuji.

ThisKatsu Nishiki (Homare Nishiki) variety in one corner of the field, but the number of Katsunishiki that Masaru planted about 50 years ago has decreased to about 10. Recently, winters have not been that cold, but in the past, here in Ashibetsu, temperatures often reached -30 degrees Celsius, and the temperature was reduced to about half due to the cold.
Even under such circumstances, this Ho-chan probably knows Katsu’s thoughts, and it puts out branches much more energetically than other Katsu Nishiki and produces delicious fruit. The fruit is not large, but every year it delights us with its rich flavor that has a good balance of sourness and sweetness.
In the Ohashi cherry farm, there is a message saying, “Among the 50 types of cherry picking, these Ho-chan cherries taste the best!” There are many staff members who say,

Ohashi Farm has grown a variety of fruit trees and fruits in the past, but for the past 50 years, we have focused solely on cherries. (*Recently, we have started planting other fruit trees to extend the employment period.) Ashibetsu City, Hokkaido, where we live, is a very warm place during the day and very cool at night. This unique inland climate is very suitable for growing fruit trees, making it possible to grow fruits with a high sugar content.

The manual cultivation of the first generation, Sakuji, and the efforts of the second generation (first generation of the cherry farm), Masaru, who continued to dig up grapes and plant cherries, and continued to aim for the production of real cherries, bore fruit, and in March 2006, Ohashi Cherry Farm was the first in Hokkaido to win the 7th National Fruit Tree Technology and Management Contest.We received the highest award, the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Award.
Ashibetsu is also known as the “hometown of the stars” because you can see many beautiful stars at night. Please come and visit Ashibetsu, where the air is clear and nature is abundant.
We will deliver the cherries that we have grown with great care to everyone.