History of Soy Sauce
A timeline of soy sauce
1580Tamari soy sauce started to be produced in Kishu Yausa. This was after its invention around 1254. The sauce was usually sold with miso paste at small stores. |
1588Over 18,000 Liters of soy sauce were exported from the town of Kishu Yausa to Osaka in Japan. In just eight years, soy sauce was becoming an essential condiment across Japan. |
1688In Edo, Japan, also known as current day Tokyo, strongly flavored soy sauce was produced and exported among the people. |
1737Soy sauce was exported out of Japan for the first time by the Dutch East India Corporation. Small amounts of it went to the Netherlands many times. |
1917Kikkoman was founded in Noda, Japan! 1997Kikkoman Foods Europe B.V. produces soy sauce at a factory in Europe for the first time. |
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FUN FACT : Soy sauce's roots actually trace back to Ancient China! In China, there was this sauce called "jan" that came from pickling various food items. Nobody knows how, but it came to Japan under the code name "hishio". When hishio was made from soybeans instead of other food items, it was in between soy sauce and miso paste. A liquid also seeped out of hishio, as Zen monk Kakushin discovered. That liquid tasted good, and it was the first Tamari Soy Sauce