Private Soy Sauce Workshop and Factory Tour in Historic Kakegawa, Shizuoka
Private Soy Sauce Workshop and Factory Tour in Historic Kakegawa, Shizuoka
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Dive into centuries of tradition at Kakegawa’s iconic soy sauce factory. Taste, create, and take home the flavor of history!
Highlights
Discover centuries-old soy sauce tradition in a 230-year-old Kakegawa factory
Taste three distinct soy sauces and learn which dishes they pair with perfectly
Create your own soy sauce koji and take it home as a tasty souvenir
Filter fresh soy sauce in a hands-on Shibori workshop and bottle it yourself
Explore a historic kura building and 40 wooden barrels, some over 100 years old
Experience Details
Step inside a working soy sauce brewery where time is measured in decades, not days.
In Kakegawa, Shizuoka, this family-run brewery, founded in 1795, continues to produce soy sauce using wooden barrels, some over 100 years old, preserving a method now rare in Japan.
Your visit begins with a guided tour through the brewery. As you move through the space, you will see how soy sauce is slowly fermented using techniques passed down through generations.
The scent of aging wood and fermenting ingredients fills the air, offering a quiet sense of how deeply rooted this craft is. Staff explains the process in clear, approachable terms, helping you understand how flavor develops over time.
After the tour, you will take part in two hands-on workshops. The first introduces soy sauce koji, an essential element in fermentation. You will mix your own batch using the brewery’s soy sauce, creating something personal to take home.
Next, you will experience the shibori process, where fresh soy sauce is carefully filtered. Using simple tools, you will press and bottle your own raw soy sauce, gaining a closer look at a step rarely seen outside production.
During the session, you will also taste three different types of soy sauce, each with its own depth and character.
Staff will explain how each one is traditionally used, offering insight into how soy sauce complements different dishes, even though food is not served during the experience.
This is a quiet, hands-on experience that connects you to a long-standing tradition.
With the brewery scheduled to close temporarily for renovations after February 2026, it is a rare opportunity to visit a place where history continues to shape every drop.
What You Get
Good To Know
- This experience is not available in March 2026
- Please refrain from eating natto before coming to the brewery
- Please refrain from wearing perfume
- Only domestic shipping is available
- Children are welcome to watch for free. However, if they’d like to join the workshop, please make sure to book a spot for them as well (just add them to your total number of participants)
Meeting Point and Meeting Time
Please meet your host at the experience venue in Kakegawa, Shizuoka. More details and a Google Map will be provided upon booking confirmation.
Cancellation Policy
Cancel your booking at least 24 hours before the experience start time to receive a full refund.
Experience Location
A coastal prefecture located in central Japan between Tokyo and Osaka, Shizuoka is home to Mount Fuji (the highest mountain in Japan), beaches and hot spring resort towns, and a thriving agriculture industry producing some of the most delicious and highly coveted produce in Japan.
If I could give this experience 20 stars, I would! Fukaya San was incredibly kind and thorough, and even printed out his presentation in English before I got there so he could explain the process t...read more
A rare behind-the-scenes look at traditional soy sauce production. Walking through the brewery and sampling different soy sauces was very memorable. The host was friendly and knowledgeable, clearly...read more
Stepping inside an 8th-generation soy sauce brewery was truly fascinating. Seeing the wooden barrels and learning about traditional fermentation methods made the process come alive. Tasting several...read more