Ninety-two soy sauce factories in a single town in the Edo period: today only one is still working.
The district (about 400 metres east–west and 280 north–south, six hectares) preserves white-walled storehouses, wooden lattices and honeycomb windows (虫籠窓) of the houses of the merchants of shōyu, Japanese soy sauce: according to local tradition, it originated here in the 13th century with a monk who brought from China the recipe for kinzanji-miso, a fermented soy condiment from which the residents of Yuasa are said to have separated the liquid that would become modern soy sauce. In the Edo period, under the protection of the Kishū domain, the town had ninety-two shōyu factories side by side.
Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings since 2006, recognised as Japan Heritage (日本遺産) in 2017 under the title ‘The first drop – the birthplace of shōyu making, Kishū Yuasa’.
ℹ️ Free entry, pedestrian district. 15 minutes on foot from JR Yuasa Station.
🚉 Yuasa · 11 min walk
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