Begin your journey at the Yuasa Ekikura Tourism Center, where your guide introduces the town’s legacy and the history of soy brewing. Cross the railway line and walk to Marushin Honke, home to the Kuyogura Brewery, where soy sauce is still made through traditional natural fermentation.

Inside, experience the warm, earthy scent of fermenting moromi (soy mash) while learning how soybeans, wheat, salt, and kōji mold gradually transform into the rich umami of Japanese soy sauce. See the brewery’s wooden vats, aged over generations, which are still in active use—a living testament to craftsmanship that values time as its finest ingredient.

After the brewery visit, enjoy a short rest at the Kura Café, where you can try a soy sauce–flavored soft serve ice cream, a modern expression of Yuasa’s deep culinary heritage.

Next, your guide will lead you through the Preserved Historic District of Yuasa, a nationally recognized Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings. As you walk past lattice-fronted townhouses and narrow lanes, you’ll learn how Yuasa flourished during the Edo period as a hub of trade, salt production, and fermentation.

The highlight of the tour is the visit to Kadocho Soy Sauce Brewery, the oldest operating brewery in Yuasa—and the only one in Japan that still produces soy sauce exactly as it was made centuries ago. Here, traditional brewing continues without mechanization: wooden barrels, hand-mixed moromi, and natural fermentation over long periods remain unchanged. Kadocho’s preservation of authentic brewing methods makes it not just a museum of history but a living embodiment of Japan’s fermentation heritage.

Your tour concludes at Yuasa Station, but the fragrance of wooden barrels and the quiet rhythm of fermentation will stay with you. To visit Yuasa is to witness the birthplace of Japan’s flavor—a town where history is not remembered but lived, every day, through the art of soy sauce.