Marushin Hamburger

Making lunch is much easier with this.

Sizzle

Hurray!  It’s Marushin Hamburger.

Marushin Hamburger

1960

Yuuichi Shinkawa (32) working in Tokyo’s Tsukiji district became independent and established a company that produced processed fish products.

One time at a Western-style restaurant, Yuuichi came across hamburger.

It’s tasty.

So this is hamburger?

This would be great if it could be easily eaten at home.

With an acquaintance, Yuuichi began to research into hamburger that could easily be prepared.

Beef is expensive.  It’s not widely distributed, either.  Let’s try making the hamburger using whale meat, pork, or tuna.

Chicken, pork and beef are currently used.

What can we do to maintain freshness?

Few households have refrigerators.

It’ll be meaningless if it can’t be easily prepared.

I also want to keep production costs low.

Above all, it must be a food for ordinary people.

What about applying cooking oil?

Let’s coat the cooked hamburger with lard.

That way, the hamburger can be taken out of its package and prepared as is.

This is epoch-making!

The coating of lard enabled the hamburger to be stored for a long period if it was just kept cool.

This will also keep costs low.

1962

Marushin Hamburger went on sale.

14 yen each

At first, the hamburger was packaged using a single sheet of paper with an opening on the back.  After the hamburger had gone through the heating process, it was cooled and packaged.  Actually, however, the hamburger was not completely chilled.  The opening was therefore made to help in preventing the quality from being lost due to the steam.  (Currently, the package is sealed.)

At that time, croquettes were 10 yen each and a carton of milk was 14 yen.  Marushin Hamburger was also put on sale at 14 yen each which was an affordable price for ordinary people.

It’s inexpensive and looks good, but what is it?

Hamburger was not yet generally known.

Because Marushin was born and raised in Tsukiji, the product was distributed throughout the country through the Tsukiji market.  However, even the market people did not know what hamburger was.

Is that some sort of monster fried fish ball?

To get people to know about Marushin Hamburger, samples were given out at shops and stores.

It’s really tasty.

In addition, hamburgers using Marushin Hamburger patties were sold at department stores, on college campuses and at freeway service areas.

It’s good.

1970

With persistent business activities and increased TV commercials, Marushin Hamburger began to be well-known and reached a daily production of more than one million packages.

Ma~rushin, Ma~rushin Hanbāgu

From around this time, the company grew rapidly branching out into other products such as ham, sausage and pasta.

I want them to have an unbeatable taste using real ingredients.

1980s

As people turned to more expensive tastes with changes in the food culture, Marushin Hamburger with the common touch began to lose favor.

The gyoza production line at a factory used by an OEM has become idle.

Let’s make gyoza with Marushin’s unmistakable taste.

New company President Masayuki Minato

2000

Utsunomiya Gyoza went on sale.

This genuine gyoza with its taste approved by the Utsunomiya Gyoza Association proved to be a big hit.

After the collapse of the economic bubble and with the onset of a deflationary period, people began to look again at Marushin Hamburger with the common taste.  The decline in its sales stopped.

2005

The old familiar TV commercial was brought back after a lapse of 15 years.  The popularity of Marushin Hamburger began to heat up again.

Ma~rushin, Ma~rushin Hanbāgu  

Marushin Food products have become more diversified.  Because they are easy to use, they are arranged into various dishes.

Marushin Hamburger has that good-old taste that other hamburgers do not have.