Sakai Soy Sauce Industry

About Sakai Soy Sauce Industry

Sakai Soy Sauce Industry (左海醤油工業) is a soy sauce maker at Noma, Shodoshima Town, Shozu District, Kagawa Prefecture, whose Meiji-era soy sauce storehouse and early Showa hydraulic accumulator shed were registered as two Registered Tangible Cultural Property structures on June 25, 2002 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs, the storehouse is the core of the company's hill works and lines the main prefectural road. It faces the storehouse of the former shore works across the road, together recalling the bustle of soy sauce brewing at its height.

Two Structures

The soy sauce storehouse is a single-storey earthen store of the Meiji era, a gabled block 17 metres by 11 joined to a second gabled block 9 metres by 10 (Agency for Cultural Affairs). It was registered as contributing to the historic landscape of the country.

The hydraulic accumulator shed, an early Showa hut north of the storehouse, houses the accumulator that powered the moromi presses. As a relic of the modernisation of soy sauce brewing, it was registered as difficult to reproduce (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

Sakai Soy Sauce and Hishio no Sato

According to the company, Sakai Soy Sauce Industry long ran a coastal shipping business and began brewing soy sauce around 1857. In 1907 it helped found Marukin Soy Sauce (now Morita Co.), one of Shodoshima's largest brewers, and in 1910 its soy sauce won a bronze medal at the Japan-British Exhibition in London.

According to Shodoshima Town, Hishio no Sato is an area of soy sauce breweries and the houses of families who prospered from the trade; many of the brewery buildings are registered cultural properties and are still used for brewing today.

Visiting and Location

Shodoshima Town advises checking with each business before visiting the soy sauce stores of Hishio no Sato. We found no information on interior visits to the Sakai storehouses, so please view them from the main prefectural road. The address is 2121-1 Noma-ko, Shodoshima Town; enquiries to the Shodoshima Town lifelong learning section (0879-82-7015).