Due to its strategic importance, Kohoku was constantly at the center of power struggles during the Sengoku period (15th and 16th centuries). Fierce battles ensued after the region’s ruler, Azai Nagamasa, broke his alliance with Oda Nobunaga, including the Battle of Anegawa and the fall of Odani Castle, the Azai clan’s stronghold. During this time, Nobunaga ordered the burning of temples throughout Kohoku, and Joshinji was destroyed.

Following the Honnoji Incident and Oda Nobunaga’s death, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Shibata Katsuie fought over Nobunaga’s succession in the Battle of Shizugatake (1583). Hideyoshi commanded his forces from Joshinji, and the young warriors who distinguished themselves in repelling Katsuie’s forces became known as the “Seven Spears of Shizugatake.” Katagiri Katsumoto later rebuilt Joshinji on the orders of Hideyoshi’s heir, Hideyori. The ornamental finials donated by Hideyori remain today.

In 1657, the Tokugawa shogunate instituted the sake brewing licensing system, imposing limits by controlling rice allocations for sake production. There were approximately 27,000 sake breweries nationwide at the time. According to the 1696 Hikone Domain Sake Brewing Shares Registry, the Tomita family brewed 14 koku, equivalent to about 2,520 liters of sake.

Kinomoto prospered as a post town, a critical lodging point for daimyo traveling between Hokuriku and Edo on journeys between their home domains and Edo residences. Records from 1698 describe 119 households south of Joshinji and 74 to the north, along with the main inn reserved for daimyo and officials (now the Takeuchi residence), auxiliary inns, wholesalers, public lodgings, and more than ten merchant shops. The Tomita residence stood near Joshinji, directly across from the main inn. A canal once ran down the center of the street, lined with willow trees — a scene that endured until the early Showa period (1926-1989). According to records, the Maeda clan of Kaga Domain stayed at the main inn. Later, when Princess Yohime, daughter of the eleventh shogun Tokugawa Ienari, married into the Maeda family, she stayed in Kinomoto and bedding was prepared for 3,000 people.

Kinomoto suffered two major fires in 1739 and 1744, both of which destroyed the Tomita residence. In 1744, the seventh-generation head, Churyo, relocated a building from Nishi-Goshu (present-day Takashima City) to rebuild the main house. This structure, now one of the oldest merchant townhouses in Kinomoto, was designated a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2019. In 1749, storehouses were newly built, and the well was dug anew in 1769. Water drawn from the well is still used in brewing today, and the brewery rebuilt in 1812 by the ninth-generation head, Chuji, continues to serve as the site of sake production. When repeated famines in the late Edo period strained the shogunate’s finances, nationwide sake production fell, with sharp declines in output likewise experienced by the Tomita family.

As Japan pursued modernization, the eleventh-generation head, Churi, played a central role in Kinomoto’s development. He first established an elementary school in 1871, before co-founding the Ikasokyusha social relief organization and the Kohoku Bank. Leveraging Kinomoto’s long tradition of sericulture, he also founded Kinomoto Silk Spinning, serving as its president and devoting himself to nurturing new industries.

In 1878, when Emperor Meiji toured the Hokuriku region and stayed at Joshinji, he was accompanied by Iwakura Tomomi, a leading figure in the Meiji Restoration, who lodged at the Tomita residence. The Kohoku Library, located near present-day JR Kinomoto Station, is among the oldest surviving private libraries in Japan. Opened in 1907, it originated from the Sugino Library, founded by a lawyer from neighboring Yogo for the community’s benefit. From the 12th-generation Hachiro to the 14th-generation Teruhiko, the heads of the Tomita family served as the library’s directors.

In the early 20th century, Hachiro devoted himself to brewing research, emulating renowned brewing regions outside the prefecture to improve quality, leading to frequent first-prize awards for Shichihonyari at sake competitions in Shiga Prefecture. The brand was later registered as a trademark, and Tomita Brewery was selected as an official supplier to the Imperial Household Department. Hachiro established a brewing research facility to raise the overall quality of sake in Shiga’s Ika District (home to Kinomoto), thereby enhancing the reputation of Ika Sake.

He was also a cultural figure. Through this connection, the artist Kitaoji Rosanjin stayed with the Tomita family, creating several works during that time. One of them is the seal carving for Shichihonyari still used on the label today. It was created when Rosanjin used the pseudonym Fukuda Taikan.

For centuries, Kinomoto had hosted cattle and horse markets along the Hokkoku Highway. They flourished under domain protection during the Edo period but came to an end in the early Showa era. Today, iron rings for tethering horses remain in front of Tomita Brewery and several other residences along the road.

In 1935, the Kohoku Branch of the Agricultural Experiment Station was established to improve rice cultivation and agricultural techniques suited to the local climate. Around this time, the native rice variety Shiga Asahi gained prominence, replacing the main wet-land rice variety Shinriki. Brewing continued during World War II, with Shiga Asahi appearing in fermentation records in 1941. After the war, however, cultivation declined and the variety virtually disappeared.

In the latter part of the Showa period, Tomita Brewery was forced into temporary closure. This crisis was overcome by Kiyoko, mother of the current 15th-generation head, Yasunobu, who succeeded the brewery in the Heisei era (1989-2019).