Kaneiwa Shoyu Honten

Founded in the late Meiji era, the first-generation owner of Kaneiwa Shoyu Honten studied the art of soy sauce brewing in Yuasa, Wakayama—the birthplace of soy sauce and a region renowned for its craft.

After mastering the techniques, he sought to establish his own brewery and chose Kanaya (today’s Aridagawa Town) as the location. The reason was clear: pure, high-quality water flowing from the Koyasan mountains, part of the sacred Kii mountain range and the Kumano Kodo World Heritage area. This pristine water became the lifeblood of his brewing.

The land also holds deep cultural significance as the birthplace of the eminent monk Dōmyōe Shōnin, who revitalized Japanese Buddhism in the Kamakura period. In 1912 (Taishō 1), Kaneiwa Shoyu Honten took root here and began brewing soy sauce.

For over a century, the brewery has continued to craft soy sauce using traditional wooden barrels, allowing natural fermentation and maturation to unfold slowly across the seasons. Within its historic buildings, standing beside the clear streams of the Arida River, the soy sauces quietly live and breathe.

What results is a depth of flavor and aroma that mass production can never replicate. From Kishu Arida, the heartland of soy sauce, Kaneiwa Shoyu Honten proudly delivers authentic taste and craftsmanship, unchanged for more than 100 years.