Generational fermentation & reclaimed barrel-making

February 26, 2019 11:37 AM

Yasuo Yamamoto's quest to preserve traditional soy-sauce barrel making (BBC) With every new kioke that Yamamoto makes, he writes his name and the names of his three young children on an inside panel of the cedar wood before sealing it shut. They, in turn, leave their handprints on the underside of each barrel. Yamamoto’s daughter has started running into the family storehouse to ask if she can taste her father’s shoyu. His oldest son, who Yamamoto hopes will one day take over the family craft, now eagerly leads him into his great-grandfather’s bamboo grove to search for shoots
posted by CrystalDave (13 comments total)

Another nice story on Yasuo.
posted by HumanComplex at 12:06 PM on February 26, 2019 [2 favorites]

That was beautiful. Thank you.
posted by RakDaddy at 12:09 PM on February 26, 2019

That's amazing to know. As an amateur cook, reading it I started to fantasize about going to his workshop and becoming a traditional shoyu maker in Canada and supplying shoyu for my local community.
posted by polymodus at 12:13 PM on February 26, 2019

Also featured in the "Salt" episode of "Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat" series from Samin Nosrat on Netflix.
posted by dnash at 1:01 PM on February 26, 2019 [6 favorites]

If you're in the US want to treat yourself to some good barrel aged soy sauce without any hassle, Kishibori Shoyu is on Amazon. It's at $20 for a small bottle, which is about 50-100% more than what it'll cost in a store (typical markup for Amazon specialty food products). I have seen it on store shelves in the US too. Epicurious did an article about it. I don't think it's anything particularly artisinal but it's awfully good and definitely different from generic soy sauce.
posted by Nelson at 1:10 PM on February 26, 2019 [1 favorite]

Im in the Vancouver area, there's one or two Japanese stores Izumiya and Daimaru and maybe they carry something similar. I'll have to make a trip and see.
posted by polymodus at 1:31 PM on February 26, 2019

This is great. I would love to try some and will probably shell out the $20 for a bottle. I'm also interested in trying authentic mirin, as everything in the stores here is flavored HFCS. Can anyone recommend some?
posted by slogger at 1:41 PM on February 26, 2019

Oddly enough, I just bought his Tsuru Bishio a little while back -- note that the Amazon price appears to be variable depending on what seller they stick you with (I paid less than what it's going for today, and before I bought it was listing at double the price I see today).

Good stuff, but I'm inclined to keep it only for "nice" dishes rather than run off the mill cooking. Kinda like expensive balsamics in that regard I think.
posted by aramaic at 1:54 PM on February 26, 2019

To lock the planks into place, Fujii Seiokesho’s craftsmen told Yamamoto not to use glue, but bamboo. After talking to a neighbour, Yamamoto learned that his grandfather had planted a bamboo grove decades earlier for exactly that reason, knowing that someone in the family would one day need to build more barrels.

This is amazing.
posted by a halcyon day at 2:06 PM on February 26, 2019 [9 favorites]

Wonderful, thanks for posting this!
posted by carter at 3:14 PM on February 26, 2019

okay which one of you bought all the 500mL tsuru-bishio on the internet
posted by a halcyon day at 5:07 PM on February 26, 2019 [1 favorite]

This is cementing my desire to visit Japan despite not speaking Japanese and being pretty stringent about not eating animal products! This is so cool, thanks for sharing.
posted by holyrood at 7:28 PM on February 26, 2019 [1 favorite]

I've had this style of soy sauce at least once in Japan. It was good, although I'm not sure I'd spend a bunch of money/time to seek it out over the normal stuff. As the article pretty much points out, the main reason people don't use it anymore is the cost (and given the vast quantities of soy sauce a typical Japanese household runs through, it would be a really big premium). But it was noticeably different/richer.

holyrood -- while it takes a little extra work, its quite possible to visit Japan as a vegan non-Japanese speaker! The latter is not much of a problem at all, really (at least for tourist purposes). The former is manageable, although harder than in the US for example.

[I've taken my vegan family to Japan, so if you or anyone does end up planning a trip feel free to memail me for some tips!]
posted by thefoxgod at 3:33 PM on February 27, 2019 [2 favorites]