Begin your tour at the Yuasa Tourist Information Center before heading to the Kuyogura Brewery of Marushin Honke, where soy sauce is still made using traditional natural fermentation methods.

Inside, be enveloped by the warm aromas of moromi (fermenting soy paste) as you discover how soybeans, wheat, salt, and kōji are slowly transformed to create the deep umami flavor of authentic Japanese soy sauce. See the huge wooden vats, used for generations and still in operation, true witnesses of a craftsmanship where time remains the most valuable ingredient.

After this visit, take a break at Kura Café to taste a handmade soy sauce-flavored ice cream, an original specialty that reflects Yuasa's culinary creativity.

Continue the tour through Yuasa's protected historic district, recognized as an Important Preservation District for Traditional Buildings. Stroll through its narrow streets lined with old wooden houses and discover how Yuasa thrived during the Edo period thanks to trade, salt production, and the fermentation tradition.

The highlight of the experience is the visit to Kadocho, the oldest soy sauce factory still in operation in Yuasa. Today it remains the only one in Japan that produces soy sauce exclusively using traditional methods, without any mechanization. The wooden vats, the hand-mixed moromi, and the long natural fermentation have remained unchanged for centuries. By faithfully preserving these ancient techniques, Kadocho is not simply a museum, but a true living heritage of Japanese fermentation culture.

The tour concludes at Yuasa Station, but the aroma of the wooden vats and the quiet rhythm of fermentation will remain in your memory long after the trip. Visiting Yuasa is a return to the origins of Japanese soy sauce, in a city where history is not only remembered, but continues to be lived every day through know-how passed down from generation to generation.